HIBPtARY OF CONGRESS, 

i ^!L.i/ .....v\....4..9.. I 



\ UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, ^i 



THE ECOiNOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



FOR 

$430, 

INCLUDING 

IRELAND — CORK, blarney castle, killarney lakes, Dublin, Belfast, and 

giant's causeway; SCOTLAND — Glasgow, Edinburgh, roma.n walls, etc.; 

ENGLAND— INCLUDING ten days in London; isle of wight; FRANCE — 

SIX days in PARIS, VERSAILLES, AND THE PALACES; SOUTH FRANCE; 

SWITZERLAND — geneva and the lake, mont blanc, mont 

CENIS tunnel, and THE ALPS; ITALY— INCLUDING TURIN, 

PALACES, ETC., FLORENCE (LA BELLA), ROME FIVE DAYS, 

NAPLES, MOUNT VESUVIUS, POMPEII AND HERCULA- 

NEUM, PISA, VENICE; AUSTRIA — THE CAVES, 

TRIESTE, AND THE ADRIATIC; VIENNA; 

PRUSSIA — INCLUDING PRAGUE, DRESDEN, BERLIN, POTSDAM, HAMBURGH, 

THE GERMAN OCEAN ; LONDON AGAIN, LIVERPOOL, 

MANCHESTER, AND HOME AGAIN. 

.i^LL IN A MANNER OF ORDINARY AMERICAN STYLE J\ND COMFORT. 

FIRST-CLASS OCEAN FARE BOTH WAYS. 

Inchiding, also, an Account in Detail of the Daily Dishcrsements, Hotel Bills, 

Railroad Fare, Cabs, Sight-seeing, etc., shozving what 

was Enjoyed and what it Costs. 

With many New Hints on Foreign Travel, and Contrasts and Comparisons 
BETWEEN America and Europe. 

y" 
By WILLIAM HEMSTREET. 

— - — ichM^y 

New- York : 

S. W. GREEN, PRINTER, Nos. i6 & i8 JACOB STREET. 
1875. 



$ 



i- 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 

WILLIAM HEMSTREET, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Necessity of Travel— The Outset— The Outfit— Recapitu- 
lation 



CHAPTER n. 

The Refreshment of the Ocean— The Ship— How to Make a 
Trip Comfortable — The Company— A Burial— Sea-Sick- 
ness — Land — Fourth of July i8 

CHAPTER HI. 

Ireland — Guide-books — Traveling Light — Queen stown — An 
Esthetic Breakfast — Blarney — The River Lee — Cork — 
Blarney Castle — A Future Congressman — Killarney: its 
Lakes, Castles, and Abbeys — South Ireland 24 

CHAPTER IV. 

Dublin — Its Arts and Refinements — Soldiers — Belfast — Poli- 
tics — Rome Religion — Home Rule — Scenery 41 

CHAPTER V. 

North Ireland— The Channel— The Clyde— Ship-building— 
Paisley— The Roman Wall— Broad Scotch— Edinburgh.. 54 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

European Railroads — Vexatious Experience — Absurd Man- 
agement 66 

CHAPTER VH. 

Great Britain's Climate — America's Need — En Route to Lon- 
don — Underground Railroads — City Travel — How Lon- 
don is Fed — Municipal Government — The Unctuous Shil- 
ling — Fee to see the British Lion — Restaurants and Hotels 
— Varieties So 

CHAPTER VHL 

The Sights of London— Westminster Abbey— The Tower— St. 
Paul's — Cost of Living. 99 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Isle of Wight— Royalty and Loyalty io6 

CHAPTER X. 
European Eating: the English and Continental Styles 113 

CHAPTER XL 

To France — The Channel — Crucifixes, Soldiers, and Priests — 
Beautiful Paris— -Palaces in general — The French As- 
sembly — Gambetta— The Army — The Grand Opera-House 
— French Fussiness 117 

CHAPTER XII. 

The European Language — Across France to Geneva — The 
Beautiful River Rhone — By Diligence to Mont Blanc — 
The Savoyards— The Glaciers— Scenery 137 



CONTENTS. V 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Mont Cenis Tunnel — Italy — Turin — Florence — Art 150 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Rome, Ancient and Modern — Ruins 161 

CHAPTER XV. 

Naples — Mount Vesuvius — How to go up it — What it is — 
The Bay of Naples 179 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Venice — Faded Glory — Clean and'Quiet Streets — Adelsburg 
Grotto — Vienna 189 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Austria and Germany — Berlin — Hamburg — The German 
Ocean — The Liverpool Docks — Manchester — " No Admit- 
tance" — Domiciles in general igS 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Final Comparisons and Contrasts — Foreign Prejudice con- 
cerning America — America has Nothing but Liberty — A 
Wholesome Resentment — More American Patriotism 
necessary 212 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ECONOMY OF IT. 

A TRIP to Europe! Its anticipations were not 
to me more inspiriting than their realization 
now is. To know Europe through one's own 
senses is the indulgent life-long dream of many 
Americans. 

I had always held a doctrine that to give an 
American balance, he should have a trip through 
the mother-world — although experiment proves 
even that is not always effectual. The transat- 
lantic world is to us the mother-world in every 
phase of human life — of art and thought — except 
as to our peculiar American freedom ; and as to 
that, nowhere on the round earth do men walk so 
erectly and easily as here. Many times as the 
writer went through Europe, he thought, '" Ah ! 
we have nothing in America but freedom ;" but 
more of this in the sequel. 

Extensive travel on our own continent, a tho- 
rough consultation of European guide-books,maps, 
and lists of prices, and some training as a journalist 
to quick ancf critical observation and prompt 



2 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

record, led the writer to believe that the reputed 
expense of European tours is a humbug, and that 
he might become, in some wise, a pioneer to others 
in economical European touring, while resting, 
instructing, and improving himself. 

Europe is the biggest show I ever went to. 
All Americans who have resources above the 
necessities of life, and are willing to pay money 
for substantial education, should go to it. 

[It is funny how many of the Americans whom I 
met abroad asked me if I had never before heard 
of them. I had to blush in every instance to say 
I had not. 

This is a diversion to gain the attention of the 
desultory reader ; now to business.] 

To show the benefit of care and method in 
preparation for an European tour, I will here 
say that I started with $506 in gold, and only a 
hand-valise for baggage, on a three months' trip 
through Ireland, Scotland, England, France, 
Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and Germany, and 
disbursed only $433 for essentials, devoting the 
remainder of the $506 to art purchases, clothing, 
etc., and arrived home on the day and dollar 
intended, chock-full of satisfaction, having ac- 
complished my journey in the uttermost detail. 

There will not be any attempt here to develop 
any new thing in European attractiveness, nor to 
write better than has been done of any old thing ; 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 3 

the only object is to show, in a brief and cheap 
form, to Americans of limited means or plain 
habits, the facilities for European touring that 
really await them. 

Each day's actual expenses, as we proceed, is 
faithfully given, showing what was enjoyed, what 
it cost, the general style of the trip, and what 
each reader may do if he chooses, varying his 
route to his own taste ; for the whole civilized 
world furnishes facilities at every rod, and more 
conveniently and methodically in Europe than 
in America. Here follows a recapitulation ; but 
the daily items will be given as we proceed. 
Of course such a trip can be only a skimming- 
over of Europe and as to its scenic aspects ; 
there can be no more than a superficial observa- 
tion of society, which, much more than American 
society, has the fashion of being ''out of town" 
in the summer. Of course, one can not attempt 
to describe any of the ten thousand interesting 
objects he meets, and which the guide-books and 
encyclopedias do well ; but general allusion will 
be made, to make interesting the practical re- 
quirements of the travel. 

RECAPITULATION OF EXPENSES. 

OCEAN TRIP, IRELAND, SCOTLAND, AND ENGLAND, FIVE 
WEEKS, $182.29. 

June 27 to July 9, Ocean, $84 48 

July 9, Queenstown, 4 00 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



July lo, Cork, etc., 

" II, Killarney, 

" 12, Dublin, etc., . 

" 13, Dublin, 

" 14, Belfast, 

" 15, Giant's Causeway, 

" 16, Glasgow, 

" 17, At Friend's, 

" 18, " 

" 19, " " (gifts), 

" 20, Edinburgh, 

• " 21, 

" 22, To London, 

" 23, York, etc., . 

" 24, London, . 

" 25, 



26, 

27, 
28. 



29, 

31, Isle of Wight 



August 



2, " 

3, Lodgings and room 9 days back, 

EXPENSES IN FRANCE, 



$« 71 


5 54 


2 40 


5 97 


5 92 


4 34 


3 50 


5 00 


338 


3 08 


9 66 


3 17 


3 39 


2 89 


70 


383 


2 72 


I 48 


I 82 


4 59 


I 38 


3 34 


7 GO 



$182 29 



INCLUDING GENEVA AND MONT BLANC TO MONT CENIS 
TUNNEL, EMBRACING TWO WEEKS, $51.48. 

August 4, Fare to Paris, $7 35 

5, At Paris, 3 66 

6, Paris, . . . . . . . 4 09 

" 7, " ........ 2 73 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



August 8, Paris, 



9» ' . . 

10, " 

11, " ....... 

12, Fare to Geneva and Mont Cenis, second 

class, 

13, E7t route, ' 

14, Geneva, 

15, Mont Blanc, 

16, Geneva, . . . . 

17, En route, . . . . 



EXPENSES IN ITALY, 

EMBRACING ELEVEN DAYS, $90.33. 

Fare to Naples and back to Venice, second class, 

August 18, Turin, 

19, Florence, 

" 20, Rome, 

21, " ....... 

" 22, " • . 

" 23, En route, ...... 

" 24, Naples, ...... 

" 25, Pompeii and Vesuvius, 

" 26, Rome again, ..,',. 

"27,. " ^. 

28, En route, 

" 29, Venice, 

" 3o> " 

AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA, 

EMBRACING NINE DAYS, $47. lO. 

August 31, To Austrian frontier, second class, . 
Sept. I, To Vienna, second class, 



$480 


2 26 


4 40 


4 40 
d 


9 00 


80 


2 14 


2 15 


I 30 


I 40 



$51 48 



%M 05 


4 95 


4 15 


4 20 


4 20 


3 20 


\ 20 


3 70 


4 50 


2 80 


2 00 


I 15 


3 20 


4 03 



$90 33 



$6 80 
II 70 



I lO 


360 


5 40 


6 70 


5 40 


5 80 



6 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

[Sept. 1, En route, . . / . , . . $0 60 

3, Vienna, 

4, " 

5, To Prussian frontier, third class, 

6, To Berlin, third class, .... 

7, At Berlin, 

8, To Hamburg, 

U7 10 
FROM HAMBURG, 

THROUGH ENGLAND, HOME AGAIN, $110.54. 

Sept. 9 and 10, To London, by steamer, second class, $6 00 

" 10, London, 3 44 

" II, To Liverpool, third class, . 
i2^and 13, at a friend's (gifts), 

" 14, Manchester, 

" 15, Liverpool. 

" 16, Passage home, 

En route to New-York, waiters, 

i $110 54 

Landed Sept. 23 ; total expenses, three months, 

in United States currency, $481 74 

Gold, about, 433 00 

The tourist should exercise everywhere and 
at every hour the same self-reliance, positive- 
ness, and intelligence he does about home and at 
business — not surrendering himself supinely to 
the swarms of importunate servitors, whose only 
patrimony is the traveling public. For example, 
what event is more romantic than first standing 
before majestic Mont Bla7tc, with his mighty 



5 


60 


3 


00 


2 


50 


88 


00 


2 


GO 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 7 

masses of volcanic rock pushed up into heaven, 
his glaciers, and banks of whitest snow ; or at 
what moment is a man more likely to lose his 
practical senses ? And yet, while all other tour- 
ists were negotiating for guides, mules, Alpine 
staves, charts, etc., the writer started ahead alone, 
without companions or guide, with his umbrella 
for a staff, and, following the path, spent five 
hours on the mountain, crossing the wonderful 
Mer de Glace, without its costing a cent. An 

American lady, Mrs. M , of Joliet, afterward 

performed the same economical (and what is, to 
a woman, a hazardous) feat. 

Again: as soon as I arrived at the hotel at 
Rome, I made the acquaintance of three other 
English-speaking people — a Scotchman, a Ken- 
tuckian, and a lady of Glenn's Falls — and we joined 
in obtaining facilities for our Roman tour, getting 
an elegant two-horse carriage, an accomplished 
guide — Signor Noci, of the Hotel Allemagne — 
all fees, lunches, beggars' pence, etc., paid, eight 
hours each day, for ten francs each — two dollars, 
gold! 

Again: arriving at Naples at six o'clock in the 
morning, we saw there to the left, in easy sight, 
Mount Vesuvius, smoking. Instead of going a 
mile to the right to the hotel, to commence the 
day's expenses and be overwhelmed by the offers 
of ''guides," we remained at the depot during the 



8 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

cool of the morning, obtaining a refreshing toilet 
and a lunch for thirty cents each person, and 
then, for sixty cents each, obtained a railroad 
ticket by way of Vesuvius to Pompeii, and return. 
The expenses of the day until our return were 
$1.20 each. 

Detailed instructions need not be given. Much 
must be left to the common-sense and composure 
of the tourist as he arrives on the ground. A 
few moments' reflection, without haste, saves 
much time and money. Study the guide-book 
and map beforehand or on the hour of arrival, 
and then do as you would here. 

The writer practiced a method in visiting for- 
eign cities as he advised the young English doc- 
tor, on the return trip, to do in New-York. He 
was a comely, virtuous young person — the doc- 
tor, not the writer — as every young person ought 
to be while visiting Europe, and advice was 
given him accordingly. He had taken the post 
of surgeon of the ship for one trip to see " Nee- 
ah-gah-rah" Falls and to do " New-Yahk." Bar- 
ring the advice some gave him ^' not to go far 
out Broadway without stout boots, on account of 
the rattlesnakes," and if he went "to Yonkers 
where that fellow (designating one of the com- 
pany) lived, to have a good pair of revolvers, on 
accormt of the Indians," and ''to telegraph a 
registry of himself and his personal description 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 9 

to the Commissioners of Police, on his arrival," I 
will pass to my own sober counsels. 

He allowed ten pounds for " Neeahgahrah" and 
ten pounds for a week in " New-Yahk" and en- 
virons. I told him he could do it all for six 
pounds, if he could live gn the ship for nothing, 
as he said he could. And this was the plan I 
mapped out for him : 

NIAGARA. 

Return ticket to Suspension Bridge, . . $16 00 

Cross the bridge on foot, . . . . .12 
Walli from bridge to Falls, ..... 

One night's lodging (first-class), ... i 00 

Six meals (two days at Falls and e^i route), . . 3 00 

Total for the Falls (four pounds), . . . $20 12 

FOR NEW-YORK. 

Six days and six lunches in New- York (liberal), $3 00 

Fare by West-street cars to Central Park, . . 05 

Public carriage through the Park, . . . aq 

Fare back, q^ 

First-class theatre (once), i cq 

Fare by Harlem River to High Bridge, ... 20 

Return by horse-cars, 12 

Fare to Greenwood and ferriage, .... 07 

Return, q- 

Fare to Prospect Park and return, . . . . 14 

Ferriage to Beecher's, ...... 04 

Three omnibus trips the length of Broadway and re- 
turn, . . - 60 

Extra car-fare and omnibuses, . . . . i 00 

Total for New-York (i pound 12), . . . $7 24 



lO ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

But one who could not board on his ship could 
take a genteel boarding-house for $12 per week, 
there seeing common society, relishing the enjoy- 
ments of the average American sociabilit}^, and 
obtaining practical information, a like experience 
being unattainable in London. 

On the contrary, some Westchester annexa- 
tion nabobs advised our friend to stop at the 
Fifth-avenue Hotel, travel by hack at ten dollars 
per day, lunch at Delmonico's, and take the In- 
ternational Hotel at Niagara. 

Now, all these things are very comfortable, ex- 
peditious, and nice ; but, in the inscrutable de- 
crees of Providence, some of us have not been 
endowed with the faculty of money-making, and 
yet are afflicted with ambition and intellectual 
desire. 

The above is a general illustration of going 
through Europe with surprising economy, a con- 
dition that I found many Americans had the wish 
but not the tact to attain. Many, for want of 
practical judgment or determination, and too 
much small pride, spend their tours in continu- 
ous fidgets, gloom, or anger, at the entire ele- 
ment of extortion in which they have to travel. 

Upon the fool who goes to Europe to avail its 
vices, no advice can be thrown away. The 
writer was, throughout, habitually in his own 
room at dusk and in his own bed at nine, gaining. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



II 



in a long rest, strength for the observations of 
the day, dawn finding him among the markets, 
news-venders, or taking extended views of city 
and suburb before the accumulating smoke. 



RECAPITULATION OF PASSAGE-MONEY. 

From New-York to Queenstown, first cabin, ; 
" Queenstown to Cork, ..... 
" Cork to Blarney Castle, and return, 
" Killarney, third class, . 

Jaunting-car and boat, 

From Killarney to Dublin, third class, 
" Dublin, third class, to Belfast, 
" Belfast to Giant's Causeway, and return 

second class 

" Belfast to Glasgow, first class, 
" Glasgow to Castlecary, first class, 
" Castlecary to Edinburgh, third class, . 
" Edinburgh to London, third class. 
To Windsor Castle, and return, third class, . 
From London to Isle of Wight, and return, third 

class, 

*' London to Paris, second class. 

From Paris, by Cook's tourist-ticket, to 
Geneva, Mont Blanc, Mont Cenis, Turin 
Florence, Rome, Naples, Pisa, Ancona, 
Venice, to Genoa, second class, 
(That portion from Venice across to Genoa was 

sacrificed.) 
From Venice to Vienna, Austria, second class, 
" Vienna to Berlin, third class, 
" Berlin to Hamburg, third class 



60 GO 

28 

1 70 

2 80 
2 80 

4 14 
2 80 

2 66 

3 50 
I 50 

70 

9 24 

70 

3 02 

7 35 



56 05 



18 50 

12 10 

5 40 



12 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

From Hamburg to London, by steamer, second 

class, , . $6 oo 

" London to Liverpool, third class, . . 5 60 

" Liverpool to New-York, first class, . . 88 00 

Total fares, $313 54 

Fares by steamboat, rail, and diligence, $313.54, 
United States currency ; $33 off for gold leaves 
$280.54 — about, in gold. This deducted from the 
total expenses of $433, leaves $153 for expenses 
of subsisting and lodging for sixty-eight days (de- 
ducting twenty-tv^o days from the three months 
for ocean passage), which leaves $2.25 gold, per 
day, or about $2.50 United States currency. One 
can readily see what he can save here on that for 
omnibus fare, cab fare, and admissions to places 
of interest. There were many days en route 
wherein subsistence cost but little — less than a 
dollar. There were fourteen days, as will be 
seen by the table, where the expenses were about 
$1.50 per day, and about fourteen days or nights 
€71 route, when much less was spent per diem. 
This accounts for the table showing so many 
days up to three and four dollars, and sometimes 
five. 

There was no pinching economy; I ate and 
drank all I had a taste for, and lived, when halt- 
ing, at respectable places. I had more money, 
and knew well when I departed from essentials 
to luxuries. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 3 



OBJECTS OF INTEREST VISITED. 

Having given the expenses of a three-months' 
trip abroad, it might be well to indicate, in gene- 
ral, the objects of interest visited. But this can 
not be done in detail. When we reflect that 
most of the cities and towns we visited were 
older than America now is when America was 
discovered, and that, on an average of a thousand 
years each, they have been accumulating art and 
historic interest ; when Ave speak of their old so- 
cieties for the diffusion of knowledge, for the pro- 
motion of science, and the preservation of archaso- 
logical matters, we can only say, " Go and see 
Europe." The writer has before him some three 
dozen guide-books of places of local importance, 
each having its long catalogue. Many of these 
places of attraction are free ; but those requiring 
a fee range about twenty-five cents, United 
States money, throughout Europe. Cab fare is 
about twenty-five cents per mile, and omnibus or 
horse-car fare about two cents per mile. So, 
from this, it may be seen what immense stores of 
intellectual and sentimental gratification exist 
each day for the visitor in those European cities, 
among its libraries, museums, gardens, and galle- 
ries, at a very little cost. The folloAving were 
visited in person by the writer: 



14 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

IRELAND. 

Queenstown and forts, River Lee, Black Rock 
Castle, Carrigrohane Castle ; Cork, Cathedral, 
public buildings ; Blarney Castle, Water-cure 
establishment, Killarney Lakes, Round Towers, 
Muckross Abbey, Danish Bridge, Ross Castle, 
Peat-Beds. 

Dublin. — The Nelson, O'Connell, and Welling- 
ton monuments. Trinity College, Bank of Ireland, 
Old Parliament Rooms, Dublin Castle, Christ 
Church, and St. Patrick's Cathedral, ancient 
monuments. Bones of Strongbow, Royal Dublin 
Society Rooms and scientific collections, National 
Art Gallery, exceeding any art gallery in Ameri- 
ca, Crystal Palace, Custom-House, the Four 
Courts, Phoenix Park. This town is coeval with 
the Roman empire. 

Belfast. — Linen factories and docks. 

Giant's Causeway. 

SCOTLAND. 

Glasgow and the Clyde — ship-building. Ca- 
thedral and Necropolis — over a thousand years 
old — architecture massive and imposing^ Castle- 
cary and Roman walls. 

Edinburgh. — Castle, crown jewels and regalia, 
Room of Queen Mary, Mons Meg, Calton Hill, 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. I 5 

Holyrood Palace, and Queen Mary's apartments 
and furniture, room of the assassination, Scott 
Monument, Royal Institution, Antiquarian Mu- 
seum, National Gallery, Nelson's Monument, 
John Knox's residence, Walter Scott's residence. 
Paisley shawl factories. High School, Arthur's 
Seat, Museum of Science and Art. 

ENGLAND. 

York. — Coal mines and foundries. Cathedral, 
monastery, scene of Jew massacre, ancient walls. 

London. — Crystal Palace, Windsor Castle, 
royal apartments and Throne-room, London 
Tower, the Crown " of ^ England and crown 
jewels, also military weapons and armor, room 
of Raleigh, Anne Boleyn — beheading-block and 
axe — Norman Chapel, the Bloody •Tower,^Queen 
Elizabeth's prison, and numerous objects of in- 
terest. Catalogue in a large book. 

The Fire Monument, Thames Tunnel, Parlia- 
ment, Westminster Abbey, Royal Academy, 
British Museum, St. Paul's Church, Nelson's and 
Wellington's coffins. Bank of England, Times 
Buildings, Thames and bridges, docks, suburbs, 
Horse Guards, parks, Zoological Gardens, Bo- 
tanic Gardens, etc., etc. 

Isle of Wight. — Ryde, Osborne, Queen's 
Villa, Portsmouth Navy-yard. 



1 6 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



FRANCE. 

Dieppe, Paris. — Bois de Boulogne, Tuileries, 
Palaces of the Louvre, St. Cloud, Versailles, Tria- 
non, Royal apartments. Throne-rooms, Arc de 
Triomphe, tour around the wall enceinte, monu- 
ments, house of Abelard and Heloise, Jardm des 
Plantes, Hotel des Invalides, and coffin of Napoleon, 
Military Museum, Catacombs, carriages of State, 
French Assembly, Champs Elys^es, Notre Dame, 
Palace de P Industrie, Place de la Revolution, de 
la Concorde, de la Bastille, Museums, Tomb of 
Richelieu, scenes of the late war, etc. 

Southern France — Macon wine districts ; and 
Geneva— Mont Blanc,^ Mer de Glace, Savoyard 
peasants and scenery, the Alps and Mont Cenis 
Tunnel. 

ITALY. 

Turin (Turino, two thousand years old). — Hall 
of Deputies, Palace of Victor Emmanuel, Galleries, 
Palazzo Madama, Palazzo Reale, Palace of Science 
and Antiquities, Arsenal, churches (very grand) : 
through the various ancient towns and capitals 
by day. 

Florence (Firenze). — Piazza della Signoria, 
Palazzo Vecchio, Galleria degli Uffizi (the centre 
of art for the world), Cathedral, // Duoino, Cam- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1/ 

panile, National Museum, Dante's Monument, 
house of Michael Angelo, churches, etc. 

Rome. — St. Peter's, Catacombs, Tombs of the 
Scipios, Roman Forum, Trajan Forum, Colos- 
seum, ancient palaces, baths, tombs, walls, and 
sewers, Roman highways, aqueducts, arches, 
gates, and ruins generally. 

Naples. — Museums, Virgil's tomb, Grotto of 
Pausilippo, the Bay, Vesuvius, Pompeii. Rome 
and Florence again. 

Venice. — Gondola rides. Doge's palace. Bridge 
of Sighs, the Rialto and Grand Canal, Church of 
St. Mark, palaces, etc. 



AUSTRIA. 

The Grotto of Adelsberg, Vienna royal palaces, 
the Prater and Exhibition Palace, public garden. 
Through Austria by day to 



GERMANY. 

Berlin.— Public buildings, Monument of Vic- 
tory, public gardens and monuments. 

Potsdam and old palaces. 

Hamburg. — Home again by way of the Ger- 
man Ocean, London, Liverpool, and Manchester, 
with their wonderful docks and factories. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE OBJECTS — THE PASSAGE. 

With the writer, the main consideration in 
taking this tour was change, diversion, rest — as it 
is with very many. The battle of bread in the 
metropolis is a sore one ; that and the heat and 
dust put most of us at our wit's end to get a 
fresh breath and repose. An ocean trip gives all. 
From the centre of the hot, dusty, wearying city, 
to the clean deck of the quiet, orderly steamer, 
moving calmly off into the cool, fresh, pure 
breezes of the ocean, all within an hour, is a re- 
lief — sudden, perfect : behind is care laid upon the 
shelf; before are only bright visions ; and then, at 
an early hour, one sinks to the first comfortable 
sleep for past months. Then come ten days' 
quiet, and three thousand miles of fresh winds 
over thousands of miles' expanse of sea-water, to 
strengthen the brain and invigorate soul and 
body. The toiling of the city makes life stale, 
and one craves an exchange of worlds. This 
ocean voyage is an effectual change, the great 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. I9 

distance from continent to continent having- a 
peculiar fitness in the programme of novelties 
and benefits. A shorter distance and a quicker 
passage might land one in Europe as jaded in 
body and mind as when he left America ; but so 
much time on the ocean, with no books nor busi- 
ness, and a good captain, good company, and a 
good table, relax the strained nerves, refresh the 
brain, relight the eye, send new vitality through 
the veins, dispel the clouds of melancholia, re- 
store the joyous, unbroken spirits of boyhood, and 
prepare one to step ashore amid the grandeurs of 
Europe with a degree of exultation. 

THE GANG-PLANK. 

It is a glorious thing to start for Europe, but 
even that has its cloud ; there is the heart-tremor 
in looking a farewell upon those faces that have 
never looked but kindness and peace on us. 
That is one of the times in life when we feel that 
there must be a place 

"Where all parting pain and care 
And death and time shall disappear." 

Among other preparations, it is necessary that 
the tourist should select well in advance a repu- 
table ship, likely to have good company ; and if 
he be of a susceptible naturCj should have a care 
in the selection of his state-room companions. 



20 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

By deferring this matter, many have to take 
''Hobson's choice." So far as the ship is con- 
cerned, the writer suffered no grievous omission, 
except as to a Hght felt hat, a deck blanket, and a 
deck chair. All voyages — even those in mid- 
summer — are cold, and the air below decks 
being always bad, healthful rest must be taken 
upon deck, and the cap, blanket, and private 
chair are essential articles. They may appear 
to be indifferent matters, and the ''greenhorn" 
will likely omit them. 

The pleasures of the trip will be enhanced in 
proportion as one cultivates from the start agree- 
able relations with his fellow-passengers ; for all 
who go to Europe are likely to have some " point" 
in their history or purposes ; and I think the ex- 
perience of others will show that there is less ob- 
jectionable personal character in a cabin of ocean 
passengers than in the same number of people 
anywhere else. On the score of economy, I had 
been counseled that a steerage passage might 
do, if I were willing to " rough it." I took pains 
to investigate the nature of the steerage passage, 
and the result of my observation is to advise no- 
body to take it who can possibl}^ raise money for 
a cabin passage. There are no social lines in 
America over which one may not easily step ; but 
on the deck of a steamer there is an invisible line, 
terrible and depressing to the steerage or inter- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 21 

mediate passenger, across which he may look 
but dare not pass to more congenial and refined 
associations. 

But it is not proposed here to make much of 
the ocean passage ; it is a worn-out subject. I 
have no opportunity to describe the sublimity of a 
storm, for our passages, going and coming, were 
disgustingly calm. We saw no " waves mountain 
high," no "wales," no "sherk," no "phosphores- 
cent ripples," no "icebergs." But one can hardly 
repress a remark of wonder and admiration at the 
precision and simplicity of navigating the great 
ship by star, and sun, and wheel, and compass, 
and log. 

Going out on the steamer Italy, of the National 
line, June 27th, 1874, we had a good specimen of 
the English officer — Captain Thompson, a quiet, 
strong man, who commanded his ship without a 
word ; and returning, September 23d, 1874, on the 
steamship Idaho, of the Guion line, we had a good 
specimen of the Scotch officer — Captain Forsyth, 
who knows his business. All honor to them both ! 

As to 

SEA-SICKNESS, 

it is not proposed to say much. It has one wise 
purpose in it, if no other, and that is, to teach a 
man how little he can be — how near zero his 
gauge runs. However, it may be resisted by the 



22 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

will, by conforming the volitions to the motion of 
the ship. The cause of sea-sickness is in emo- 
tional surprise or disappointment, and begins in 
the brain. The writer acted upon this theory, and 
did not miss a meal on either passage, although 
he was subjected to a dull, heady feeling, which 
was, perhaps, nearly as bad as the usual climac- 
teric of the trouble. 

. A BURIAL. 

A babe in the steerage died. A few gathered 
at the gangway. The little corpse was wrapped 
in canvas ; two sailors laid it upon a rug, and, 
with ropes, awaited the ceremony of the minister. 
Ladies from the cabin attended amid the squalor 
of the steerage ; the spray covered us all ; the 
Union Jack was curtained before the little body, 
which was dropped into the angry waters, to be 
nosed by the monsters of the deep, while the 
mother tottered away to her cold hemlock bunk, 
and a bejeweled mother gathered the rich em- 
broidered skirt, and went back to the cabin to 
laugh and flirt. 

FOURTH OF JULY 

was celebrated, at longitude 37.9 and latitude 
45-33? by a clean, trim deck, the stars and stripes 
at the mast-heads, and appropriate cabin cere- 
monies, in which people of many nations joined. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 23 

After no 071 of tJie tzvelfth day. — We are in sight 
of Ireland. The sky is cloudless ; the sea is calm. 
The eager steeragers, with leaping hearts, crowd 
the bow and sides of the ship, blessing Ireland ; 
some are in tears. I now know^what is meant by 
"• Isle of the Sea" andj'' Emerald Isle." The sea 
is blue and pure ; there is the green ; it is like a 
great emerald in a sea of sapphire. The colors 
are bright, distinct, beautiful. The lines of the 
land are bold, prominent, striking. Martello sig- 
nal towers and one ruined castle stand lonely, 
suggesting the past. As we skirt the coast, the 
study with our glasses is 

CORK HARBOR. 

We arrived at the mouth of the harbor at 1 1 at 
night ; the tug is two hours reaching us, and we 
have taken off sixty passengers and baggage by 
one small oil-lantern. 



EXPENSES. 

(All enumerations of expenses are reduced to U. S. currency, and will be given 
daily.) 

Cabin passage, $80 00 

" Boots " (twice), 28 

Brandy (lOom-porter drank it), . . . . i 40 

Subscription to Fourth of July display, . . 2 80 

$84 48 



CHAPTER III. 

SOUTH IRELAND. 

There will be no attempt in this little volume 
to equal or imitate in any degree the many excel- 
lent guide-books that may be had almost any- 
where, and all of which are of good practical ser- 
vice. Every city, country, or lesser object of in- 
terest has a local guide-book ; a thorough consul- 
tation of them will save the tourist time and 
money. Self-reliance and the business sharpness- 
practiced at home, a bearing without flurry or 
loss of ^elf-possession, will carry a tourist in Eu- 
rope as economically as here. Care should be 
taken, in the selection of a guide-book, to get the 
latest issue, as dealers are accustomed to " palm 
off" old trash. Intending to make this little work 
very limited, there will be an endeavor to put 
into it only such novel observations and compari^ 
sons as can not be found elsewhere. 

Immediately on landing at Queenstown, I found 
that my foresight had made a '' decided hit" in 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 2$ 

selecting for my luggage only a hand-valise ; for 
I distanced my companions and secured comfort- 
able quarters in the middle of the night, while 
they were yet perplexed and delayed by the cus- 
toms officers and the swarms of Irish porters, who 
were worse than gnats. 

My luggage consisted of six shirts and collat- 
erals, a tooth-brush, a hair-brush. Harper's Guide- 
book, an opera-glass, and note-books — that is all. 



QUEENSTOWN. 

The first touch of Ireland, though at midnight, 
showed us ^' strong government." The docks of 
hewn stone, the military police, and the neat and 
substantial appearance of things, were discovered 
in the night. The carrier of baggage overcharged, 
and asked, in addition, a drink of whisky. At 
the Queen's Hotel, very bad air in the corridors. 
Aroused the porter, who jabbered so we could 
not understand more than as if French, until two 
or three repeatings. Fifteen cents per drink. 
Shown rooms at 2 a.m. ; furniture all foreign, old, 
and substantial; royal arms and insignia on 
every thing. Got into bed, and thought it was 
dawn; looked at watch, and saw by twilight it 
was half-past two ! What 



26 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST 

A DELICIOUS BREAKFAST ! 

What fine cooking and flavor, and what decent 
waiting ! Strawberries that looked like wax- work, 
and scented the whole room ; chops like quail ; 
salmon, tender and sweet ; butter and bread pure 
as snow, and coffee like wine ! There is a cosi- 
ness about an Irish breakfast-room that is in- 
describable — almost aesthetic. No wonder they 
are plump people, and we are lean. We hurry 
out to " do" Queenstown, amphitheatred in cres- 
cent form around her beautiful bay. With her 
three strong forts, her vessels-of-war, and com- 
mercial shipping, the town looks like the circular 
shelves of a greenhouse of flowers — flowers, ivy, 
and trees everywhere. The poor and middle 
class cultivate them. We are struck at first view 
favorably. There is careful, laborious taste dis- 
played by the rich, and much imitation of the cas- 
tellated and feudal style. Troops of chubby chil- 
dren are going up the hill. I see a sign, 

"NATIONAL SCHOOL." 

Knowing this to be secular, sustained by public 
money, I go in ; am politely and sweetly wel- 
comed by nuns. The walls are hung with maps 
and charts, and the shelves are laden with books 
of every form of instruction. It is a regulation 
of the National School that no religious precepts 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST, 2/ 

be taught nor the Bible read, where the sects are 
mixed, but separate moments for religious in- 
struction are had where either sect desires — the 
other fleeing away. 

WOMEN PEDDLERS 

are, of all nuisances, here the worst ; they are 
more persistent than a swarm of blue-tail flies, 
and stick closer than sheep-ticks. They infest 
the doors of every hotel, and the proprietors per- 
mit it. Two or three followed each of us for 
several blocks. They blarneyed and pleaded ; 
one told me I was a " lady-killer." They have 
discovered the trick of repeating the attack until 
they wear people out. When they get hold of a 
tough customer, they become impertinent. They 
are dishonest, and seldom give back change, 
pleading short a few pennies. 

At ten o'clock, we take the boat up the 

RIVER LEE, 

renowned in Irish poetry. And it is justly re- 
nowned. Here we first penetrate Ireland. All 
are on deck with field-glasses ; some in expressed 
raptures, others quiet and searching, but with no 
less profound emotion. What of villa and ivy- 
clambered wall and tree ! What of sylvan nook 
and grotto, of field, lawn, and flower-beds ! And 



28 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

the River Lee is busy, too. It is full of craft. We 
pass old Black Rock Castle, renovated ; and after 
a sail of eleven miles, passing shaded prome- 
nades, for stretches of miles, and elegant lines of 
bathing-houses, we reach 

CORK, 

and, sure enough, hear the chimes of old Shan- 
don : 

" Oh ! the bells of Shandon, 

That sound so grand on 

The pleasant waters 

Of the River Lee !" 

This city is a thousand years old ; eighty thou- 
sand people — solid, rich, and mixed with poverty. 
Thackeray says the people of Cork have always 
been distinguished for their artistic and literary 
tastes. They have furnished eminent men in 
those departments — Sheridan Knowles, William 
Penn, Hogan, the sculptor. Father Prout, Ma- 
guire, Barry, Maginn, etc., etc. Cromwell paid 
especial attention to it, and Marlborough cap- 
tured it. The city is a combination of cathedrals, 
convents, exchanges, banks, solid residences, and 
concrete hovels. All is stone or brick— no wood 
anywhere. Stone and mortar seem to have been 
plenty, and labor cheap, all through South Ire- 
land. All habitations are made of it, and even 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 29 

the cattle-guards at the depots, and pig-pens. 
The country is swept of timber, giving the eye a 
stretch over fields for twenty to thirty miles, with 
occasionally shade-trees and clumps, or a new 
growth of timber, planted by the wealthy land 
monopolists for hunting-grounds. The road- 
sides, through town and country, are fenced with 
high stone walls, old and ivy-covered. Along 
these are hedge-growth and tall shade-trees. 
Cork is venerable for centuries of active history 
and sanguinary struggles. 
As soon as we are in 

THE STREETS '^ ■ 

of Cork, we see new street scenes. There are 
gooseberries, rich and yellow as mandrakes, for 
a cent a pint ; small donkeys drawing market- 
carts ; 

JAUNTING-CARS, 

waiting like our cabs. We secure rooms at the 
Victoria. I go for a straw hat ; an old hatter 
and his daughters poultice me with their blarney 
until I buy one three times the cost I intended to. 
He said, " You Amerikins are the fellers to thravel 
and spind money, an' yez have the wit to make 
it." Why I am spotted everywhere, by childhood 
and age, as an American, I can not tell. At i 
o'clock we all take jaunting-cars, and are off, pell- 



30 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

mell, through the streets of Cork, for a trip, six 
miles distant, to 

BLARNEY CASTLE. 

As we proceed through a very romantic coun- 
try, what emotions fill one on nearing one of the 
famed spots of earth and history ! All the coun- 
try has the mellowness of age. One is conscious 
of its all being the ground of -stirring events for 
ages and centuries. The castle is venerable for 
its antiquity, its size, and power, as well as for the 
chief who built it. When its gray walls and bat- 
tlements were first pointed out through the elms 
and foliage near there, I felt a little romantic. I 
knew that over those hills, down through those 
dells and by yon lake, scouted and reveled Crom- 
well's troopers. We alight at the stone and iron 
gate, and are admitted by a peasant woman, who 
asks if we will remember her when we return. 
We walk on fast, eager, and with strange antici- 
pations, toward the venerable pile. Pages of 
detail could be made interesting, but here is no 
room. It is partly secluded by foliage, and the 
spirit of romance and ruin broods over and around. 
There it is in solitude, deep into a pastoral coun- 
try, far from the -jar of modern life. Heaps of 
wall and carved turrets were down, having fallen 
over a hundred feet. Ivy had grown, season over 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 3 1 

season, for years and ages, until it had spent its 
natural life, and become matted ten or fifteen feet 
thick, and then, by accumulated weight of centu- 
ries, perhaps, fallen down. The castle is known 
to have been built nearly five hundred years ago. 
Its style is rude, rough, massive. It is a concrete 
of mortar and stones of all sizes — the windows, 
embrasures, balconies, hanging buttresses, and 
turrets being chiseled granite. The circular stair- 
way up through the tower is granite ; the centre 
edge of the stone steps, as they wind up for seven 
landings, 120 feet, corresponding to a stairway 
newel, has become polished and rounded from the 
gliding of hands in descending. At the base, the 
embrasures show the walls to be twelve feet thick. 
There is a jutting for the beams of each story, the 
wall thus narrowing to the top, which is covered 
with earth and grass, and is about eight feet wide. 
1 am detailed in this description, because we have 
no ruins in America. The overrunning of Ireland, 
in religious wars, by soldiers of Elizabeth and 
James and Cromwell, left many of these ruins of 
castles, monasteries, and abbeys. They all, to-day, 
present a similar appearance. The roof and all 
the floors have disappeared. Nothing but rude 
stone and the evidences of rude builders remain. 
The dark, eccentric passages, the cells, nooks, 
niches, crannies, alcoves, rooms, banquet-halls. 



32 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

are too intricate for description. Tall trees grow 
up inside. 

THE BLARNEY-STONE. 

Tradition does not reveal why or when a cer- 
tain stone there was connected with the national 
character of volubility. But there it is, and its 
blarney has distinguished itself around the earth. 
And to know what real blarney is, come to this 
country. One has to arouse a new faculty to 
guard successfully against it. The rivers run with 
it ; the birds sing it ; it is in the dew, in the milk, 
in the sunshine ; the winds hum it. If there is 
any virtue in that stone, it must have kissed the 
people. Let the Irish place the term upon their 
national escutcheon, for it illustrates their vivaci- 
ty and ingenuousness. It is said that this Latin 
inscription is upon it, " Cormach MacCarty fortis 
me fieri fecit y 

The stone was pointed out, away up, over loo 
feet high ; it is a lower one on the projecting battle- 
ment, held up by iron clasps, running ten or twelve 
feet to the top and over the battlement. By the aid 
of a glass, from the ground, I could not discover 
an inscription; but there is a stone for the pil- 
grims of all the world. It is said that the way to 
kiss it is to be lowered down from the top on the 
outside of the wall, but the battlement, projecting 
three feet out, and being machicolated, and rickety 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 33 

with age, no one will attempt it ; but the stone is 
wide, and reaches to the inner face of the wall, 
where it can be kissed over an open space two feet 
wide and three feet long-, if some companion will 
hold on to the adventurer's heels, and he will pro- 
ject his body with 100 feet, clear, under him. It is 
a difficult and dangerous feat. One is on top of a 
narrow parapet or wall, 100 feet high, with no 
protection inside, and only a seeming frail one 
outside. The legend runs : 

" There is a stone there, 
That, whoever kisses. 
Oh ! he never misses 

To grow eloquent. 
'Tis he may clamber, 
To a lady's chamber, 
Or become a member 

Of Parliament." 

TIM BUCKLEY. 

Descending the long, rude, spiral^ stone stair- 
way, and each paying a shilling to the woman be- 
longing there, we were then met by an interesting 
character — a ragged, sharp : lad of seven, with the 
above name. He commenced volubly his legends 
and history. " Come wid me ; I'll shoa you where 
Cramwell hanged the Irishman — yis, Cramwell, 
the r-r-ogue." Said I, "Why, the Irish hanged 
Cromwell." Tim replied, '' Noa, they murthered 



34 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

him wi' cannon, the r-r-ogue." He showed us 
caves, and pointed to natural rock-loops, where 
the prisoners are said to have been chained. Tim 
threatened to come to the United States as soon 
as he could raise money enough. I expect him to 
turn up here soon as alderman, or judge, or M. C. 
for us. 

EXPENSES JULY 9, QUEENSTOWN AND CORK. 

Lodging, $0 84 

Treated to breakfast, 

Trip to Cork, , 28 

Dinner, i 12 

Jaunting-car to Blarney Castle, . . . . . i 40 

Fees at the Castle, 56 

Lodging at Cork, 70 

Boots and attendance, 28 

Breakfast, . . . 70 



$5 88 
THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. 

Nothing can be added to the literature of 
Killarney beauties. But aside from the general 
beauty of the surroundings, some new facts may 
be given to American readers. Lord Kenmare 
owns all one side for twenty square miles or 
more, and Sir William Herbert owns all the 
other side. These great demesnes are held in 
affluent rest, bearing old, sacred ruins of castle 
and abbey near the banks of the lakes. Some 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 35 

of the wild and wooded parts are hunting- 
grounds for the nobility. There are blue moun- 
tain-peaks all around ; the valleys and plains are 
alluvial, and have the culture of centuries. The 
country roads are equal in smoothness and clean- 
ness to your asphalt pavement. Ivy-covered 
stone walls stretch along, and over all are arched 
vistas of elm. Huge gates of stone and iron, with 
foliage covering, indicate retired and sequestered 

manorial and mediaeval residences. 

^ » 

MUCKROSS ABBEY 

I had not heard of, and was not prepared to 
meet so interesting a place in Ireland. This, 
too, is a thousand years old ; roof, floors, win- 
dows, and doors gone ; nothing but the stone- 
work left. All around are awe-inspiring tombs, 
in silence, gloom, ruin. The carvings on many 
of the tablets are effaced by the corrosion 
of time. Some are entirely concealed by accu- 
mulations of moss. Within the walls are old 
tombs and entablatures. Many of the old Irish 
kings repose there. I stood upon the tomb 
of MacCarty More, the tomb of O 'Sullivan, and 
the tomb of O'Donohue. There is a square 
courtyard and cloisters all around on the four 
sides. There appear all the rooms necessary to 
a monastery. There has been a place of worship 
on this ground since 1192. In 1440, the Francis- 



36 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

can monks built the present walls. In 1626, it 
was renovated. There are two or three hundred 
tombs in and about the abbey, all of seeming 
importance at one time. A large yew-tree, two 
feet in diameter, has grown up among the clois- 
ters. This abbey is called '' The Melrose of Ire- 
land." 

We now row across the lake, and are landed at 
the rear of 

ROSS CASTLE, 

behind which General Ludlow, under Cromwell, 
came up with his flat-boats, with cannon [upon 
them. In front of the castle is the row of old 
iron six-pounders, eaten and furrowed by rust, 
thrown down just where Ludlow left them. They 
commanded the approach over the neck of the 
peninsula. I noticed on one of the cannon, " 1592." 
This castle is dilapidated like the above-men- 
tioned one. It was the last that surrendered in 
the work of the subjugation of the Irish chiefs. 

Our jaunting-car is waiting at the castle, and 
we are hurried back rapidly. Overcoats are on 
— July loth — and the pleasure and the fresh air of 
the day have given us a good appetite for the 
rich salmon of the pure, cool, clear lake. We can 
not stop for a description of the various points 
of interest pointed out by the rowmen, nor the 
silly legends told by them in connection. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 37 



THE VILLAGE OF KILLARNEY 

is poor enough. No trade, no factories ; the 
county is a grazing county ; and yet the Cathe- 
dral, the Monastery (modern), the Priory, the 
Bishop's Palace, the Lunatic Asylum, and Jail, 
would buy out all the public buildings of any of 
our affluent American cities or counties. Every- 
where the churches and public buildings are worth 
every thing else. 

I am told that the arrivals of visitors for 125 
days average 100 a day — i2,5oo^and that they 
leave, on an average, $10 per day, being $125,000 
the season. Here, too, are men proffering ser- 
vice, and women proffering trinkets, following 
and persisting and teasing until they become an 
intolerable nuisance. No local authority or in- 
fluence attempts to discourage it. Americans, 
by -their indiscriminate bestowal of pence, six- 
pence, and shilling, and sometimes a fellow with 
more money than brains bestowing a gold piece, 
have encouraged a swarm of the most despica- 
ble things that ever outraged the human form. 
There is not enough manhood or womanhood in 
an acre of them to fill a baby. I noticed a Pres- 
byterian church in the village. The Catholics 
and Protestants get along well together ; preju- 
dice, some say, is dying out. 



38 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



FROM KILLARNEY TO DUBLIN 

is a beautiful country. It is more beautiful than 
useful — large grazing tracts, and no small thrifty 
farmers. Either a peasant's shanty or a large 
mansion makes up the buildings. The country 
has a deserted look. No ownership in the land 
is Ireland's curse. 

THE SOUTH OF IRELAND 

I proclaim to be all-beautiful — much beyond the 
general conception of Americans. From Queens- 
town dock to Dublin, the mind has been almost 
bewildered by the panoramic move of naught 
but beautiful landscapes — yes, and thrift ! This 
is not said from a superficial looking, but from 
critical observation and inquiry. I say thrift in 
general, and on the surface aspect of things; 
there is misery and destitution, but it is the. ex- 
ception, and is no more than I have been accus- 
tomed to see. But we will have facts and inci- 
dents now, and sociology by and by. Irishmen 
may be proud of their country. It is a beautiful 
land, with refreshing atmosphere, sweet, pure 
water, a climate conducive to strength, and a 
sturdy soil. Such children ! plump, and tough 
as car-bumpers — and many of them as dirty. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



EXPENSES, JULY lo. 

Fare to Killarney Lakes, third class (60 m.), . $2 80 

Jaunting-car and boat for 24 miles, . . . . 2 80 

Fees at Ross Castle, 28 

Guide at Muckross Abbey, 14 

Lunch, . . • 59 

Dinner, 70 

Lodging, 42 

Breakfast', . . 42 

Boots and attendance, 28 

Guide to Cathedral, 28 

$8 71 
THE ROUTE TO DUBLIN. 

Here I took third-class passage. The style of 
cars is the same as all over the Continent, 
cross compartments and side entrances. I can 
look back now, after the completion of the trip, 
and say that throughout Ireland the railroad 
officials are less fussy than anywhere else in 
Europe. In England, the railroad servants are 
pompous and arrogant, with a haughty polite- 
ness ; on the Continent, they are always in a state 
of agitation. 

The conductor, on learning my nationality, 
was very polite to me, and even urged me to 
go into a first-class compartment, which I did, in 
order to make the acquaintance of Mr. Butt, the 
member of Parliament and home-rule agitator, 



40 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

with whom I had a free conversation on the sub- 
ject of Ireland's government. 

The farm country all the way is flourishing, 
so much as can be said of a country without 
small farmers or owners in the fee. In Ireland, 
as all through Europe, there is the notable ab- 
sence of the frequent thrifty villages and ele- 
gant isolated farm-houses that are so general 
in America. The country is without forests, and 
riding along on the cars, the American looks in 
vain for a sight of an untamed patch of woods, a 
rail-fence, or a slab shanty. The only wooden 
structure I saw in all Europe was about five rods 
of slab fence in Austria. 

EXPENSES, JULY II. 

Fare to Dublin, third class, .... $4 14 

Lunch, 28 

Concert, 56 

Two cab fares, 56 

$5 54 



CHAPTER IV. 

DUBLIN — ART— POLITICS. 

I ONCE asked a new-found friend in America if 
he was an Irishman. He replied, '' No, I'm a 
Dublin mon." 

Dublin is metropolitan ; there is nothing want- 
ing to make it a great capital but Irish indepen- 
dence. Three hundred and eighteen thousand 
inhabitants, of a highly intellectual and aesthetic 
ambition, immense public institutions, a classic 
history, and the centre of a fertile island — why 
is it not one of the'most brilliant capitals of the 
earth ? 

" Poor Ireland !" the Irish of America have 
always cried, until the average impression among 
Americans who have not been through Ireland 
is, that it is one entire place of gloom and misery. 
But I aver there is more art in that " Poor Ire- 
land" than in all America — that is, leaving out 
the Capitol at Washington and the new Post- 
Office at New- York. Of Dublin, it may be said, 
as of all Ireland and Europeancountries, that the 



42 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

public buildings and works generally are of a 
costly and extensive character. For instance, 
Trinity College, in architecture,' bronze statues, 
apparatus, library, and museum, is worth as much 
as half the college buildings of the United States. 
The public monument to a single man — Welling- 
ton — is as large as, and cost more than. Bunker 
Hill Monument. The monument to Nelson, right 
in the principal street*, cost more than all thus far 
paid on the Washington Monument, and is more 
massive than all our public monuments put toge- 
ther. The monument to O'Connell is 165 feet 
high. 

The American is always impressed, in every 
European capital, with the richness of all public 
works, public buildings, squares, or plazas, sta- 
tues,Tountains, docks,'etc. ; there is always some- 
thing new to the traveler as he progresses, some 
peculiarity of each city ; and this rather enlarges 
his capacity for imposing or accepting taxation 
for public improvements when he returns home. 
In one of the public squares of Berlin is a red 
marble basin of one solid piece of stone, turned 
and polished as perfectly as a dish, on which two 
hundred men might stand, it being about twenty 
feet in diameter. The quarrying, transporting, 
and turning of this article was a titanic work, not, 
I think, generally known. The rich palaces and 
gardens of Versailles, France, or of Potsdam, 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 43 

Prussia, mig-ht afford some Americans romantic 
dreams for a lifetime. About all these palaces 
there is the mellowness of great age and aristo- 
cratic history ; the erections are begrimed by 
time, and hovering over all are the tall trees 
in igrand rows, giving evidence of culture and 
training ages ago. 

There has been more spent on granite docks in 
Dublin than in all New- York, Boston, and Phila- 
delphia. The city has a substantial look; its 
houses are all brick or stone, and the streets 
splendidly paved and free from garbage, although 
they are not without a clayey mud or dust. If 
the people would improve the faces of the houses, 
it would be a brilliant city ; but the houses are 
built of rough brick or stone, which allow a catch 
or 'deposit of dust and soot, giving the older and 
central portion of the city a dinginess. The out- 
ward portion and the suburbs are refined, affluent, 
lovely, and possess the feudal appearance in the 
high walls and strong gates before alluded to in 
reference to other parts of the country. The 
shops are as brilliant, gay, and filled with fashion 
and rarities as in any metropolis. 

A RUN AROUND. 

Jaunting-cars are here as well as throughout 
Ireland, answering for the cabs in the cities of 
other countries. Depositing my carpet-bag in a 



44 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

good lodging-house, where I obtain a good room 
for 70 cents per day, I sally out for" impressions." 
The trim uniforms of the British soldiery are seen 
everywhere, the soldiers walking about on leave 
from the barracks, singly, or in pairs or squads. 
In addition to them are the constabulary, or po- 
lice in semi-military uniform, in every city, vil- 
lage, and country road, so that the power of the 
government is seen and felt everywhere. The 
appearance of the British soldiery puts the 
American army to shame. The former, with 
their jaunty " forage" caps, the trim, well-fitting 
scarlet coat, the well-fitting trowsers, and the 
waist-belt and the well-burnished spur, and the 
erect, brisk gait, all contrast unfavorably to our 
army, with their Dutchy cap and the slouchy, ill- 
fitting, shoddy uniform, that looks as if the quar- 
termaster had thrown the clothing at the men 
without regard to adaptation. This affects the 
esprit de corps. While the British soldiers feel and 
look like soldiers, our men both look, and doubt- 
less feel, like dunces rigged out for ridicule. The 
way Uncle Sam, with all his " resources," allows 
his men to appear on the streets, is grotesque, 
ridiculous, and shameful, and, perhaps, explains 
the desertions. Perhaps it is not good policy to 
increase the American army, but what we have 
of it should be second to none on earth for ap- 
pearance. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 45 

THE SHOPS 

open later in the morning", and close at tea-time in 
the evening. The one-price system is not prac- 
ticed. This produces a general want of faith, and 
a habit of higgling in all common trade relations. 
The city is largely Roman Catholic in religion ; 
and in politics is Home Rule, or disloyal (called 
''Liberal"). 

BELFAST 

would do credit to Boston, or any other Ameri- 
can city, for the neatness of its streets, the face of 
its buildings, and its bustling, thrifty appearance. 
Seven or eight lines of steamers ply daily 
between it and the English and Scotch ports. It 
has about 175,000 inhabitants. Its public build- 
ings are costly and stylish. Its character is Pro- 
testant and Conservative, preferring the English 
government to independence or to an Irish Par- 
liament, with a majority in it of Catholics. 

THE LINEN FACTORIES 

we could not visit, because they were stopped by 
strikes. They are many and stupendous in Bel- 
fast. 

THE POLITICAL CONDITION OF IRELAND 

is a mystery to Americans, and a problem for the 
whole world. The incessant complaints of Irish- 



46 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

men in America have not impressed us with the 
true condition of affairs. When I left America, 
one said, " See if you can find out what's the 
matter with the Irish." Another said, " You can 
see as soon as you set foot ashore." Another 
said, " If you do, you'll be smarter than any body 
else." 

Well, these topics were prominent ones on 
the ship. I determined that while going through 
Ireland, I would ask of all classes and sects these 
four questions; "Is any thing the matter with 
Ireland ? If there is, what is it ? What are the 
causes? And what is the remedy ?" 

In reply to these questions, various statements 
were made, differing in character, but not incon- 
sistent with each other. 

EXPENSES, JULY 12, AT DUBLIN. 

Lodging, $0 56 

Breakfast, ....... 56 

Dinner, . . 70 

Horse-cars, ....... 28 

Supper . . 40 

$2 50 
RELIGIOUS TROUBLES. 

The Protestants — even the most intelligent of 
them — ascribe the evils of Ireland to " PoperyV' 
but they did this with an apparent animus and 
bigotry that, to me, somewhat weakened their 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 47 

testimony. The Roman Catholics ascribed op- 
pressive legislation by the Parliament as the 
cause ; almost all parties agreed that the land 
tenures were wrong — many mentioned '^ absen- 
teeism" as the mischief. Catholic farmers said 
the rents were too high, and tenures too uncer- 
tain. Protestant farmers of North Ireland said 
the Catholic farmers of South Ireland were lazy ; 
that they gave too much money to the priests, 
and that they wasted too much time in observing 
religious holidays. Scotch people in Ireland said 
they could get along well enough at any business, 
and that the laws are all right ; the English peo- 
ple insisted that there is a *' screw loose in the 
Irish head." Take it all in all, the question of 
Irish discontent is a very mixed and profound 
one ; but from observation, and a patient and un- 
prejudiced inquiry, I think I can see, as clearly as 
I ever saw anything, the causes ; but the remedy 
is be3^ond mortal vision. 

THREE R'S 

will embrace Ireland's troubles — religion, rum, 
and runaway. Its people are divided by the 
worst of all prejudices — religious prejudice. The 
old Celtic and Catholic Irishmen remember, and 
they view the English power all about them with 
sullen hate. Their best scholars and historians 



48 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

insist that even the vote for the Union in 1800 was 
not popular nor fair ; that the old 

IRISH PARLIAMENT 

was never a Parliament of Irish, but rather made 
up of Scotch and English, and many Irishmen 
who were renegades. However, it is an admitted 
fact that Ireland is from two thirds to three 
fourths Roman Catholic, and that most of this 
sect are of the old Celtic origin ; that they have 
got it into their heads that they have more rights 
of self-government, and that there is a mutual hos- 
tility between the English people or Parliament 
and the Irish people. Added to this, masses of 
the Irish people behold the lands that should 
have descended to them from their forefathers 
now in the possession of the descendants of in- 
vaders, only by the right of conquest, and which 
lands are now rented out with an extortionate 
spirit, while the proprietors spend, in gay living, 
in the capitals of Europe, the patrimony wrung 
from the tillers of the soil. These considera- 
tions, whether real or fancied, produce a 

CHRONIC DISCONTENT 

among the people of the South and mid die of 
Ireland. 

When it is mentioned to these people that the 
land tenures and proprietary interests are legally 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 49 

the same in England and Scotland and the North 
of Ireland, they reply that the people of those 
sections of the Realm are better allied, socially 
and religiously, and that a better spirit among 
the landlords and law-judges has established 
customs favorable to those people. I conversed 
with the editor of the Irish News, at Belfast, who is 
a born Irishman and a Protestant, who admitted, 
in terms, that " custom had done more in favor of 
the Northern tenant than the Southern tenant ;" 
but still he insisted that the Southern Irish farm 
tenant was *' lazy and priest-ridden ;" he insisted 
the laws of England were good enough, and he 
hoped he would never see the day when England 
would consent to Irish 

HOME RULE, 

or withdraw her authority sufficiently to permit 
the Catholic majority to rule Ireland. 

I asked Hon. Pope Hennessy to cite to me 

THE LAWS 

he deemed unfair and oppressive toward Ireland, 
as compared with Scotland. He replied that, 
there being no legislative functions in Ireland 
above that of Town Council, and even that con- 
strained to what is permitted by act of Parlia- 
ment, the Irish felt no freedom, and were governed 
with the greatest rigor in matters too numerous 



50 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

and small to mention. He cited, however, the 
Fire-arms Act, by which the Lord Lieutenant 
could proclaim any county where no man could 
own a fire-arm, except by special license and 
heavy tax. As a consequence of that law, I my- 
self observed that the whole country is 

SHADOWED WITH CROWS, 

as thick and familiar as our doves and pigeons. 
Any Yankee farmer knows how this pest scratches 
up the seed, and yet that the crows are so afraid 
of a gun that they would keep out'of its range. I 
have heard from Scotch farmers that in Scotland, 
where all the farmers have guns, they can not get 
within range of a crow. Calling the attention of 
the Hon. Mr. Butt, M.P., to this matter, while 
riding in the cars from Kilkenny to Dublin, he 
said that out of the thirty-two counties in Ireland, 
thirty-one had been proscribed by the Lord Lieu- 
tenant. I casually remarked that if the American 
government attempted to prevent a farmer from 
shooting a crow, the farmer would 

SHOOT THE GOVERNMENT. 

That evening, before a meeting of two thousand 
persons of the Home-Rule League, he mentioned 
that opinion. 

WHAT ARE IRISH PROMISES? 

With Stephen J. Meaney, with Pope Hennessy 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 5 I 

and Mr. Butt, I conversed upon the subject of 
England's alleged misrule, and received promises 
from them to send me indices of the oppressive or 
unjust acts of Parliament. Neither one of them 
has been heard from. 

RUM. 

The gin palaces of Dublin exceed in style and 
number even our famed New- York ones, and the 
retail places in every town are as numerous. 
Considering the admitted sanguinity of the Celtic 
race, the fiery fluid has no right in their veins and 
brains. 

THE RUNAWAYS 

come next in curses. The Irish landlords unpa- 
triotically spend much of their time abroad, taking 
their money and their living from the Irish mar- 
kets, and the influence of their presence from 
Irish society. This is a general and crying evil ; 
but the state of society is a partial excuse for 
this kind of absenteeism. There is another kind 
of absenteeism, however, that is reprehensible 
unless the absentees can make less fuss about 
" poor Ireland " wherever they go — they are the 
tenant and mechanic absentees. If the Irish 
emigrants take so much doleful interest in their 
"unhappy countr}?-," and if they " mean business" 
when they talk about their patriotism, they might 



52 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

make her happier by staying home and patiently 
helping her out of her trouble. Their love for 
the soil is not as sturdy as the American. All 
O'Connell waited for was an increase to eight 
millions, when he said her fight would begin. 
The English encourage the emigration of the 
Irish to America, and, in fact, of all people that 
will relieve the land, and give more 

SPORTING GROUND 

for the aristocracy, and more pasturage for the 
mighty maw of London. It is a fact that vast 
stretches of Irish country look deserted. There 
are evidences everywhere of a once hive of in- 
dustry and toil, where now the scene is pastoral 
and quiet. Macadamized roads and curbed side- 
walks, running through and through every county, 
hedges everywhere, and labored stone walls, all 
show how ever37^ foot of ground has been worked 
over ; but those hoary, gray, moss and ivy-co- 
vered walls, that once divided small tenants, are 
now useless as objects across vast consolidated 
grazing-tracts or hunting-grounds. 

What will be the end, no one here can answer. 
England will not relax her firm hand until she 
thinks the Irish can govern themselves ; and when 
they can, popular opinion says she will. Whether 
these vast landed proprietaries shall be reduced 
and divided up, is hard to tell ; but, other things 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. $3 

being favorable, public opinion will force an im- 
provement of land tenures equal, practically, to 
the American system of small fee-ownerships. 

EXPENSES, JULY I3. 

Guide-book of Dublin, . . . . $0 56 

Breakfast, 40 

Horse-cars, 28 

Trinity College porter, .... 28 

Bank of Ireland porter, .... 23 

Dublin Castle, ...... 28 

Dublin Cathedral, , , , , . 28 

Dinner, ...,,., 56 

Passage to Belfast, 2 80 

$5 67 



CHAPTER V. 

NORTH IRELAND. 

Our trip here was confined to the route from 
Dublin to Belfast and Giant's Causeway. The 
country presents the same cleared aspect. The 
farmer tenements are slightly more frequent, and 
better. The single town of Belfast is enough 
to redeem all Ireland and the Irish from the false, 
character given to them by the Irish abroad, and 
by bigotry and uncharity of the world. Giant's 
Causeway is wild-looking, but will pay only those 
having plenty of leisure. The fresh, pure air of 
that region is bracing in July. One can look off 
on the Northern Ocean, and read by twilight un- 
til half-past ten at night. This trip was on the 

TWELFTH OF JULY, 

and the people were celebrating the Orange fes- 
tivities and the Protestant victory of the Battle of 
the Boyne. Although the population is over- 
whelmingly Protestant, the government does not 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 55 

allow Orange parades within the villages or cities 
— at least with the Orange flags unfolded. They 
were kept furled, and the regalia covered accord- 
ing to law, until arriving outside the corporate 
limits. A gathering was had on a plain south of 
Belfast, of about one hundred thousand people. 
Here the national police were gathered to pre- 
serve order. This system of police, or constabu- 
lary, is one organization throughout the island. 
There are also eighteen thousand regular troops 
quartered on the island. Both in the troops and 
the police, Catholic and Protestant members are 
found. The trains were, of course, filled with these 
celebrants. Some potheen had been drank, and 
there was some fighting between brother Orange- 
men ; but although they filled the third-class car 
where I was, I found their company tolerable and 
humorous. I read the Catholic and Protestant 
papers next day, and they were both criminative 
and intolerant. The Catholic-Irish editors and 
reporters magnified every little personal rencoun- 
ter to a "brutal riot ;" and the Protestant-Irish 
editors and reporters insisted the celebrations 
Vv^ere " orderly, dignified, and respectable — be- 
coming Christian people under the better influ- 
ence of Protestantism." 

No people are more hotly inimical to each 
other than the Irish as divided by religious im- 
pulse. 



56 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST, 

EXPENSES, JULY 14. 

Guide-book, ...... $o 74 

Lodging and breakfast, .... 70 

Horse-cars to linen factories, ... 14 

Fare to Giant's Causeway and return, 3d class, 2 66 
Supper, lodging, breakfast at Causeway, . i 68 

$5 92 

From the railroad-station to the Causeway is 
five miles. This was traveled on foot as an even- 
ing preparation for sleep, and the scenic wonders 
were done without guide next morning. 

Going *' across lots" five or six miles from the 
railroad to Giant's Causeway, where not a shrub 
was to be seen within the horizon — the hills bald 
— I stopped in a shanty on the bluff of the Irish 
sea-coast, to witness the use of peat as fuel. An 
old woman who had never lived in any other 
house, and an old man, affectionately entertained 
me, longing to know if I knew their son in " the 
Ohio district." 



A SUMMER RESORT. 

For nerve-rest and renovation, let Ireland be 
commended. Quit you of prejudice, and then 
fancy only her rarities and realities of freshest air 
and green fields; her universality of flowers, 
hedges, and improved landscape ; her limpid 
streams, cool lakes, and paradisal twilights; 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 57 

her plain people, whose hearts only leap with 
nature's impulses, and are not ossified with the 
coldness and treachery of Continental etiquette ; 
and her bounteous supply of all that can sate the 
appetite and enrich the vitality of man, appreci- 
ated in a refinement of rational cookery that is 
unequaled elsewhere in Europe. 

Nowhere else does an American find a meal 
that ''goes to the spot." Nowhere else may his 
hours and weeks sing- themselves happily along, 
with the uninterrupted respect of the people, and 
without the annoyance of the Continental fussiness, 
pomposity, and American detraction. 

Ireland is the only friend America has in Europe. 

Two hundred dollars will give a first-class 
passage to and fro, a quittance of the heated term 
here, a peaceful and health-giving sojourn there, 
and an increase of valuable information. 

Go. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE PORT OF BELFAST. 

Five lines of staunch and splendid steamers ply 
between this active port and the English and 
Scottish ports. Not only do the wharves display 
commercial activity, extensive importations and 
exportations, and a good deal of shipping, bnt I 
noticed some very extensive ship-building, and the 
launching of one of the very largest ocean steam- 
ers, and also another very large iron ocean steam- 
er on the stocks. 



EXPENSES, JULY I 5 — BELFAST.' ; 

Lunch, . $0 28 

Horse-cars, 5^ '^ 

Steamer to Glasgow, first-class, . . • 3 50 

$4 34 

A trip during the night across the Irish Chan- 
nel, and I am awakened in the morning by the 
unpleasant odor of the 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 59 

RIVER CLYDE. 

Knowing that we were due in the Clyde by day- 
light, I hastily dressed, and was on deck, as the 
renowned ship-building of the Clyde had been an 
interesting anticipation. There . were bold head- 
lands, rocks, and castles on the north bank, and 
fair plains and a splendidly cultivated country on 
the south bank. Every thing was lovely but the 
water — or rather slush — through which the pad- 
dle-wheels stirred up noxious gases, which made 
a position aft the wheels unbearable. The cap- 
tain told me that this dirty condition of the Clyde 
was caused by its being made the main sewer of 
Glasgow, and that the city had for a long time 
agitated the discharge of the sewage by means of 
an artificial sewer, and by pumping into the ocean, 
as in the case of London. This is about the only- 
fault to be found with Glasgow, and she owes it 
to herself to purify that river, which, though the 
busiest river in the world for its size, is certainly 
the filthiest. 

THE SHIP-BUILDING 

begins principally about six miles below that hive 
of industry, Glasgow. The ships are all iron, and 
the sound of tens of thousands of riveting-ham- 
mers is like the roar of musketry in a general 
battle. 



6o ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

As we get up near the Broomielaw Bridge, the 
river is barely wide enough for the steamer to 
turn around. The vessels lie from one to three 
deep on each side. It is ^' Glasgow Fair Week," 
and several low, black, narrow, sharp steamers 
are each swarmed with people on a holiday ex- 
cursion. All the steamers are painted black, ob- 
viously to prevent the bespattering effects of that 
nasty river. 

GLASGOW 

has about six hundred thousand inhabitants, and 
I suppose, from its general appearance, as well as 
statistics, it has more people of thrift, and fewer 
of wretchedness, than any city in Europe. The 
neatness of its streets, and the bright and rich ap- 
pearance of its stores and shops, will attract par- 
ticular notice. There are many interesting scenes, 
buildings, and monuments in this city, among 
which are the Cathedral and Necropolis, began 
in the twelfth century, the Glasgow University, 
the Royal Exchange, the parks, and the statues. 

PAISLEY SHAWLS. 

A sixpence took me down to Paisley, one of the 
suburbs of Glasgow, the place of the manufacture 
of the celebrated Paisley shawls. There appeared 
to be about a dozen of these manufactories. This 
name is not unfamiliar to any family man. I vis- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 6 1 

ited some of the factories, and saw in the weaving 
of these shawls additional evidence of man's im- 
mortality — the Jacquard loom. Messrs. J. Clarke 
& Co. were very courteous in showing us about. 
They informed us that none of the trade at Pais- 
ley ever exported to New-York a shawl worth 
more than $25 or $30! What the French do in 
that line, the ladies may answer to their savage 
lords. 

EXPENSES, JULY 16 — GLASGOW. 

Board and lodging by a friend ; gifts, . $2 00 

Fare to Castlecary, first-class, . . i 50 



$3 50 



THE ROMAN WALL. 



My excuse for not devoting more time to the 
interesting country, Scotland, is because I was 
more in search of Art than of Nature ; and as to 
human nature, it may be said that the Scotch are 
so honest, plain, and direct, that it takes but little 
time to know or describe them. 

Leaving out the wild and healthful, as well as 
beautiful, scenery of the Highlands, one may get 
a fair idea of Scotland and her people, and also 
visit her most renowned localities, by a trip across 
that narrow portion from Glasgow and the Clyde 
to Edinburgh and the Forth. 

The farming is careful, and every foot of soil is 
brought into use, as in all old countries ; but to 



62 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

me the most interesting feature was — what I had 
never heard of before — the old Roman wall, 
which to-day illustrates the power of ancient 
Rome and the character of the Scots. Subse- 
quent to this visit, the writer visited Rome in 
company with a Scotchman. He was a man of 
extensive information, precise in the use of it, and 
a gentleman in deportment. When our Italian 
guide was boasting over ''ze leetel ceetee of 
Rome, vich gongkered all ze vorld," the Scotch- 
man turned round impulsively in his seat, and, 
shaking his fist at the guide on the driver's seat, 
said, ''Ay; but they neve-r-r conquer-r-r-ed 
Scotland." 

And, sure enough, here was this Roman wall, 
or the remains of it, stretching entirely across 
the island, now distinctly visible, and proclaiming 
with eternal voice where the proud waves of 
Rome were staid. The invasion of Caledonia, 
under the Emperor Antoninus, in the second cen- 
tury, extended northward only as far as this line. 
The unconquered Scots retreated to the north of 
it, and the Romans threw up this wall, camped 
there, and garrisoned it four centuries. I be- 
lieve no stones are now visible in connection with 
the wall, but the site of it is visible in many places 
across the island. It was only an earthen wall and 
outer ditch. The demolitions, natural causes, 
and husbandry of sixteen centuries have left only 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 63 

a slight elevation where the wall was, and a de- 
pression where the outside ditch was ; but even 
where now are the furrows of the plow, and 
waving- grain, or grazing cattle, this imposing 
effect of mighty hands still lasts, stretching over 
hill and dale and across plain. It can be seen 
anywhere at a glance how it ran, according 
to good military judgment, along the bluff or 
crown of the slope that faces northward, giving 
a view of the valley and of the rising slope on 
the other side, thus affording a look-out line as 
against invaders. 

I had the pleasure of stopping among the farm- 
ers around Castlecary, Avhich, in the time of the 
Romans, was one of Agricola's chain of forts. At 
this time, about that portion of the country may 
be seen, placed in the walls of fences and houses, 
stones of quaint and unexplained carving, that 
have been found there, supposed to be of Ro- 
man origin. There also may be traced the Roman 
road, or highway, of that system of roads through- 
out the Roman empire that cost more than the 
city ; and also may be traced the remains of 
rude structures by the mediaeval Scots, at every 
mile of the traveler's progress, awakening his- 
toric and romantic interest, as all old countries 
do to Americans. 

It was along here, too, that I got a taste of the 
inherent and conservative religious character of 



64 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

the Scots. I was dragged off to church three 
times a day, because it was the '' rule of the house." 
They did not see where courtesy to American 
habits, or to the ''stranger within thy gates, 
came in as against the ^' command of God." There 
is nothing elsewhere in human nature so odd — 
sometimes amusing, and always interesting — as 
the Scotch frankness and directness of expression. 
They seem to have no art of plausibility or sua- 
vity ; politeness, as a study, is not in their curri- 
culum. They are the antipodes of the French in 
this respect, and are, on that account, much easier 
got along with by any sensible foreigner. It 
is a wonder how two such opposite races have 
been put upon the same planet, or how they can 
go to the same heaven. 

An old lady, eighty years of age, escorted me 
about her farm, to see some strange monuments ; 
we met a neighbor- woman with two milk-pails, 
and the following colloquy ensued : 

" Here's an American janetleman, wha wants 
to see the onteekweeties o' the place." 

" Hach, ha ! Will he no bide lang?" 

''Na, na; he's gae'n awa shin." 

" Hach, ha !" (reproachfully.) " Will he no bide 
the Sawbaith-day ? Eh, mon!" 

This was Saturday evening, and I immediately 
signified my intent to continue on in search of 
''onteekweeties." 

I went to church three times next day, and saw 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 65 

the deacon do as all the Scotch deacons do — 
take the Bible into the pulpit, and then escort the 
minister into the pulpit; and saw all the '^big 
bugs*' sit in the gallery, while all the people of 
converse grade sat below\ 
And while speaking of 

PECULIARITIES, 

I might note here that all pedestrians, vehicles, 
and car-trains pass each other to the left, in 
Ireland, Scotland, and England (as well as in 
Canada) ; while in France, pedestrians pass to the 
right and vehicles to the left. 

The paviors in the cities of Ireland, Scotland, 
and England kneel upon one knee while at work ; 
in France they "squat," and in Italy they sit oh 
a little bench. 

At the depots, and other scenes of meeting or 
parting of friends, I noticed, in Scotland, no 
**kessen ;" in France, men or women kiss on each 
cheek alternately. In Germany and Austria, the 
men alone do the kissing, while the women look on. 

In England, Ireland, and Scotland, heavy, 
square-toed shoes are universal, and are always 
well blackened — probably because the women do 
it every morning as a part of their household 
duties, like making the morning fire or cooking 
the breakfast. Shoe-blackening is a British trait. 

But of local and national peculiarities, we will 
take more particular notice as we proceed. 



CHAPTER VI. 

RAILROADING. 

There is not a feature of peculiarity in all Eu- 
rope more striking to the American than the rail- 
road system. All the railroads are better built, 
swifter, smoother, more carefully managed, and 
cost more to travel on than the American roads. 
But all this is for the benefit of the stockhold- 
ers. In the matter of comfort to the average 
passenger, the roads are positively ridiculous. It 
would seem curious that a people of admitted 
civilization should maintain the obnoxious and 
'' strait-jacket " compartment cars, until we un- 
derstand that that people are 

WEIGHED DOWN BY CONSERVATISM. 

What with the really arrogant but superficially 
polite manners of the English railroad servants, 
their '' cast-iron " rules as to passengers, their 
compartment cars and barred and bolted stations, 
the passenger has an irksome journey, and rail- 
roading is looked upon by all people as is night- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. (ij 

mare. The long and short of it is that this rail- 
road management and style is a sort of cousin to 
other aristocratic institutions. The nobility are 
largely interested in railroads ; the government it- 
self meddles largely with their management, and 
the untitled wealthy, naturally imitating their bet- 
ters, are aristocratic in their tendencies. This 
compartment plan of the cars — first, second, and 
third class — is a fair illustration of social divisions 
in Europe, the people being cribbed, confined, 
and divided everywhere, and in every thing else, 
as they are while traveling. 

The American there finds his wonted free, 
easy, and roaming style suddenly and annoying- 
ly checked. In America, he may buy a ticket 
and roam freely where he will, on a long train of 
cars, with every appurtenance of convenience, 
selecting or shunning company according to his 
tastes, or indulging in variety, picking up infor- 
mation here and there, meeting old acquaintances 
and forming new ones, and stopping on the jour- 
ney wherever he pleases, his ticket being " good 
until used " — as held by the American courts. But 
all these advantages are lost in the European 
management, more particularly in the English 
management, which partakes of the English block- 
headed conservatism and native arrogance. Often 
the writer wished to wield a fist like the kick 
of a cart-horse. You enter a station where 



68 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

you must be confined in the room containing 
the ticket-office of the *' class " to which you 
belongs according to your pay. There is not a 
map nor a chart hanging anywhere, nor any geo- 
graphical information to be found on any ticket 
or time-table or prospectus. To the inquiries of 
the stranger, the ticket-clerk — called a " booking 
agent " — is rather too curt for decency. Going to 
the train, you are bundled peremptorily into a 
compartment which is something like an ordinary 
omnibus set crosswise upon a platform-car. You 
are then locked in, and you have no means of 
exit but at the same side ; and there being no 
provision in the car for the evacuative func- 
tions, should the passenger find conveniences 
provided at the next station, they might be on 
the opposite side to his door of exirt, and thus 
necessitate his passing around the end of a long 
train. Should nature demand this hazardous 
undertaking, and the passenger miss the train 
thereby, he would have to pay for another ticket 
for the universal rule is that a ticket is only 
'' good for this train." Children in these com- 
partments make some very startling and persistent 
requests in the presence of ladies and gentlemen, 
and the stamp of suffering upon the faces of 
adults may often be seen. 

There is no provision of drinking-water on 
these cars ; and if any of your fellow-passengers 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 69 

are obnoxious, there is no remedy to that. I 
was confined once in a '^ first-class " compart- 
ment, my only companion being a young English- 
man, who was an entire polecat. Where a com- 
partment is fiiU, only the two passengers sitting 
next the window really have fresh air, and they 
usually take entire control of it to the discomfiture 
of those in the interior. Sometimes, on a hot 
summer day, one broad-shouldered fellow will 
fill up each window to enjoy the scenery and 
the fresh air, occasionally drawing in his head 
to spit on the floor. No matter what occurs 
within these compartments — sickness, death, in- 
sult, assault, accident, fire, murder, rape — it is 
shut out from the world, and there is no suc- 
cor. A half century of inconvenience has final- 
ly punched through John Bull's resistive skull 
that there can be some change in these matters 
without danger to the English constitution ; and 
they have done what they consider a smart thing 
in connecting a rope along the outside t)f the train 
whereof a printed notice is posted in each com- 
partment, stating that it may be pulled when any 
thing obnoxious occurs, but in which event not 
one in ten of the real sufferers could avail them- 
selves. The wags have called this the '' murder- 
rope ;" a pleasantry which shows there is more 
perception in England than progress. 

In winter, these compartments are warmed by 



70 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

station-agents thrusting into the cars upon the 
floors warming-pans containing hot water, but 
which are too seldom renewed. Each compart- 
ment has a voluminous display of Parliamentary 
statutes relative to the privileges of railroad com- 
panies, and the duties of the public, the most con- 
spicuous of which are how much a passenger may 
be fined if he does this or that, or omits to do 
this or that. The people are attended and hedged 
about like children, perhaps because Parliament 
has experienced that the people don't know 
enough to take care of themselves. This is espe- 
cially European. 

CARE FOR THE PEOPLE. 

The fire-tower of London, 150 feet high, erect- 
ed at the spot of the origin of the great fire, at an 
enormous expense, to commemorate that cala- 
mity, has its top balcony covered with wire bas- 
ket-work, on account of the frequent suicidal 
leaps from that place. At Pisa the keepers of 
the leaning tower will not permit a smaller party 
than three to ascend the tower, because, if one 
takes a freak to jump off, the two others would 
restrain him more certainly than one. 

All these oddities of railroad management re- 
quire about twice the number of servants which 
the American railroads do, and they really tend to 
discourage railroad traveling. If European people 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. /I 

could adopt the American system, in its freedom, 
ease, and generosity, intercommunication and en- 
terprise would be promoted among the people, 
which would serve to knock away many social bars 
and absurdities, and augment railroad profits. 
As it is, people there travel only upon infinite- 
ly greater necessity [than in America ; and the 
general knowledge among the people of the 
geography of their own country is surprisingly 
limited. I did not see but one map in all Europe 
outside of a bookstore ; in America, they are 
abundant — in every office, hallway, domicile, and 
railroad-station, besides the railroad-maps, pros- 
pectuses, tickets, and other means, which are as 
'* thick as leaves in Vallambrosa," and seem to 
spring both from the insatiate impulse of Ameri- 
cans for keeping on the move, and the sharp en- 
terprise and liberal management of railroad com- 
panies. I can practically illustrate some of the 
foregoing criticisms by some of my own annoying 
experience. 

At Edinburgh, I went to the station early, so as 
to find the ticket-agent disengaged (who, by the 
way, was a consciously smart lad, of from twenty 
to twenty -five years of age), and not seeing any 
map at the station of that large city, and being 
unacquainted with the portions of the country 
through which the road extended, I made upon 
the clerk an inquiry which I supposed Avould be 



J2 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

regarded as a reasonable one the Avorld over, and 
was entitled to a human answer. He very pro- 
perly regarded me for just what I was — an unti- 
tled, unimposing Yankee, and treated me accord- 
ingly. 

" I wish to go through the pleasantest route to 
London, and stop over at two or three interesting 
places." 

*' By what route T 

" I didn't know the names of your routes." 

(Pause and no answer.) 

" Can't you tell me the pleasantest route ?" 

''That's ho wing to yer fancy." 

" Can you show me a map or something?" 

" We cahn't provide hevery body with maps." 

'' Well, I'm a stranger traveling, and, blast your 
eyes ! if you knew how to run a railroad here, you 
would have a map, so that people would know 
where they are." 

By this time, others were pressing for their turn 
at the ticket-window, and I stepped aside. After 
taking a few moments to reduce my pulse, I ven- 
tured back again to the young "lion" at the ticket- 
window, and told him to give me a ticket for 
the most direct route to London, and with per- 
mit to stop over at two or three of the most in- 
teresting towns en route. 

" Ha ! that depends hevery think, hagain, on 
yer fancy, ye see." 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 73 

This evidently was enjoyed by his brother 
clerks, who felt that he was too much for " Bro- 
ther Jonathan." He shoved me a ticket with per- 
mit to stop over at York, and took my money as 
though he had done me a gratuity. 

On the way down {"uj?," as they say) to Lon- 
don, I saw at a country-station an important agri- 
cultural fair. Knowing another train was to pass 
two hours later, and desiring to see the English 
people at one of their agricultural fairs, I inno- 
cently stepped from the train, and was about to 
pass out of the station, on my way toward the vil- 
lage, when I was stopped by a boy of about fifteen 
years of age, in uniform, who told me I could not 
"pahshout" on that ticket. I at first regarded 
that as an illegal arrest. I said to myself, " Sup- 
pose I had a dying friend without, or were myself 
in need of medical attendance." However, I found 
the station-master, who told me I would have to 
purchase a new ticket for London, and that I 
must in no event get on the next train without it. 
I staid there, imprisoned on the platform for two 
hours, and when the train arrived, I took it among 
the crowd, took from my valise another hat, but- 
toned up my coat, with a white handkerchief 
around my neck (as it was raining), and proceeded 
on unmolested ; but the official at the London end 
of the route mounted to a state of " 'igh hindig- 



74 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

nation " at discovering that a blarsted Yankee 
had come through on a wrong train ! 

EXPENSES, JULY 1 7, l8, AND I9. 

Glasgow, entertained by friends. 

Again, passing from London to Liverpool, 
through the usual swindling process of the res- 
taurant-keepers at the different stations,! was com- 
pelled to return to the train, leaving my fourteen- 
cent cup of slop-tea untasted, just as the train had 
begun to move. Several voices called out to me, 
" You cahn't get on now, sir, while the train is in 
motion ;" but the restaurant-keeper having per- 
mitted me, in his own hearing, to be misinformed 
about the time of the train's tarrying, and I being 
unwilling to pay for another ticket, or to miss the 
steamer at Liverpool,dived like a frog through one 
of the open windows into a compartment, nearly 
leaving my boot in the station-master's hands. 
At the next station, a guard came to the window 
with a telegram, and asked for my name and ad- 
dress. When I answered him, I was an Ameri- 
can, going home, he said : " Ha ! that halters the 
case ; but, sir, you have violated the law." I 
told him I might wait in Liverpool a few days 
for his summons, if it would accommodate him ; 
and asked him, if I received the summons in 
America, and should fail to appear, whether 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 75 

or not it would be " contempt of court." I had 
only a third-class ticket, but had dived through 
the window into a first-class compartment, where 
I had an agreeable and instructive conversation 
with a young English real gentleman ; and as 
I went to a seat in my own proper place, I had 
the satisfaction of hearing some one good-hu- 
moredly say, " A jolly Yankee beggah, that." 

In concluding this subject, we might note that 
the third-class cars, in Europe correspond to our 
smoking-cars in construction, although many re- 
fined people travel in them, and the behavior of 
all classes in them is very proper. The average 
business men use them. Smoking is prohibited, if 
any one objects, and I have seen American clergy- 
men with their families travel on them. In hot 
weather, I found them preferable to second-class, 
being more roomy and airy. The fare is about 
three cents per mile. The second-class car cor- 
responds to our common coach, and the fare is 
about four and a half cents per mile. The first- 
class car corresponds only in cushions to our 
palace-car, but has none of its conveniences ; is dis- 
tinguished particularly by the refined people who 
occupy them, and by the polite attentions their 
occupants receive from the flunkeys of the rail- 
roads. The fare is about six cents a mile. 

Daniel Webster once said, at Rochester, " No 
people ever lost their liberties who had a wa- 
terfall sixty feet high." It is doubtful that a 



76 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

people will ever obtain liberty that permits 
compartment-cars. 

EDINBURGH. 

It would be presumptuous for me to attempt 
to describe worthily this modern Athens. The 
city gives an ennobling impression. I don't like 
to use the term " romantic," but that term has a 
catholic import. What was once a wild, deep 
gorge, with sides embracing rock, and precipice, 
and slope, and hill, and mountain, is now trimmed 
by centuries of art into terrace, and wall, and 
castle, and monument, and amphitheatres of cost- 
ly buildings, piled with enchanting altitude, va- 
riety, and magnificence. Entering the city by 
the railway, along the bottom of this gulf, and 
stopping at the Waverley Bridge, an immense 
structure, which gives a level viaduct between 
the south and the north sides of the town, at a 
giddy height over this gulf we see stupendous 
and striking objects on all sides. To the east 
and on the right is a loft}^ peak called ''Arthur's 
Seat," and on the left is Calton Hill, surmounted 
by Nelson's Monument ; and near it, clear cut 
against the sky, the unfinished columns of the 
modern Parthenon and Professor Playfair's Ob- 
servatory ; just at the left of the depot, over two 
or three well grassed and flowered terraces, 
stands the national monument to Walter Scott ; 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. // 

to the right is the ancient Abbey and palace of 
Holyrood, which have been occupied by Mary 
Queen of Scots, by James VIL, by Prince Charles 
Edward, by Louis XVIII. and Charles X. of 
France, by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. 

JULY 20, EXPENSES. 

Fare to Edinburgh, third class, from Castle- 

cary, $0 70 

Dinner, 48 

Supper, 42 

Holyrood Castle, fees, .... 5 

Burns's Monument, 5 

Lodging, Imperial Hotel, .... 70 

Attendance, 42 

One whisky-punch in room (caught cold), 56 

L S3 38 

MUNICIPAL. 

I must pass notice of the monuments, univer- 
sities, art galleries, museums, etc., and will con- 
clude by a notice of the universally clean streets. 
Every alley and lane and by-way is as clean of 
garbage and mud as the aristocratic streets. The 
city is economically governed ; the Common 
Council derive no salary ; nobody grumbles. I 
asked the City Clerk what was the secret of clean 
streets and good government. He said, '^ Public 
conscientiousness among the people, mon." 

The people on the streets are bright, intelligent, 



78 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

active, well-dressed. A noticeable feature is the 
frequency of old men, well-preserved, active, gen- 
teel, and learned-looking. 

Eatables about the same price here as in Ameri- 
can cities ; wages about 25 per cent less. The side- 
walks are on a level with the carriage-way, making 
promenading easy at the crossings — a sensible fea- 
ture of the European cities, superior to ours. 

The Scotch are smoking themselves to death — 
high and low, rich and poor, learned and un- 
learned. Good tobacco or cigars are hard to get 
throughout Europe. Beer, Avine, and whisky 
drinking is duly observed. The women have 
their share. It is a common thing for a well- 
dressed lady to step in off the street to a bar — 
and the bars are genteel, respectable, and for the 
accommodation of ladies, just the same as ladies' 
and gentlemen's restaurants in our country. There 
seems to be a general idea of the ludicrous in al- 
lowing the element to pass the lips that is used 
for ablutions and navigation. 

THE LAW COURTS 

were visited. The judges, the clerks, and law- 
yers all bewigged and begowned. SaAV a young 
lawyer opening a case to the jury ; he had an 
august iron-gray wig. Dundreary whiskers, black 
mustache ; and the wig being cocked up behind, 
revealed his back hair parted in the middle, and 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 79 

over which hung the queue of the wig. I thought 
it was about as clownish a make-up as I had ever 
seen. 

The beauty of Edinburgh, like Glasgow, seems 
destined to be forever shrouded by the smoke of 
their universal bituminous coal. 

JULY 21, EXPENSES, 

Breakfast, $0 84 

Lodging. 70 

Attendance, 42 

Supper, 84 

Edinburgh Castle, fees, ..... 28 

$3 08 



CHAPTER VII. 

GREAT BRITAIN'S CLIMATE. 

A CONDITION readily noticed and continuously 
enjoyed by an American in the British Isles, is 
the moist, cool, and refreshing climate. It is con- 
ducive to more physical hardihood than the Ame- 
rican climate. While our summers are hot and 
dry, theirs are comparatively humid and cool. 
Our climate makes active nerves, and a restless, 
eager, ambitious disposition ; and we work harder, 
and study more and longer hours, and exhaust by 
activity. The British people, as an average, have 
less eager and continuous industry ; have more 
quiet nerves, stronger bodies, and a more leisurely 
enjoyment of life in all things. As a general thing, 
they rise later in the morning, and close business 
earlier in the evening than Americans. The 
superior physique of man, woman, and child in 
the cities of England is readity noticeable. Ame- 
ricans can only compensate the exhausting influ- 
ences of their climate by working less and 
playing more. Spending the last half of July 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 8 1 

and the first part of August in England, we 
noticed there was no night wherein a Spring 
overcoat or bed-covers were not comfortable, 
even in London. Beard and hair that are 
hard and dr}^ in America are soft in the British 
Islands ; and pictures, statuary, and architec- 
ture fade, corrode, or disintegrate on account of 
this humidity. I have pinched pieces off St. 
Paul's church and Westminster Abbey with my 
thumb and finger in some out-of-the-way, dilapi- 
dated place which already needed repairing. 
Then, also, in connection with this ph}- sical har- 
dihood, might be mentioned another matter con- 
ducive to it : the people eat much offish and drink 
little of water, and not at all of ice-water. Ice 
is very little consumed ; and even in the meat and 
fish markets of London, in July, I saw no ice. 
Ice is seldom found in liquor-stores or restaurants^ 
and a bar-tender will assure you that his soda- 
water is " cold," because in a cool place " under 
the counter." In America, two glasses of beer 
Avill produce a headache, where one's fill of it 
will not in England, or on the Continent. I at 
first thought this difference of effect was caused 
by a difference in the quality of the beer, but 
was told that the climate was the cause. Pro- 
bably the truth is in both causes. 



S2 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



YORK. 

Many impressive scenes in this trip must be 
omitted, and we will only briefly allude to the fact 
of visiting York, once the seat of the English Gov- 
ernment, and containing a castle and the York 
Minster church, eight hundred years old, and 
of very imposing dimensions and architecture, 
with many tombs of distinguished historical per- 
sons. An old Englishman visiting there told me 
he could spend two weeks inspecting that church. 

EXPENSES, JULY 22. 

Fare from Edinburgh to London, third class, $9 24 
Lunch en route, ...... 42 



$9 dd 

Riding swiftly by the iron mills by night, and 
getting, amid the surrounding darkness, only 
instantaneous glimpses of the workers illumined 
by their fiery occupation, was like a magic 
glimpse of the infernal regions. 

We shoot by the villages of uniform houses 
clustered around the mouths of coal-pits. Over 
Newcastle we go, which, with its expanse of red 
tiles, resembles the angry ocean illumined by a red 
light. Verily, England is a hive. All along the route 
could be seen troops of women tilling the fields. 
Hundreds come over from Ireland every harvest, 
and work for fifty-six cents per day, boarding 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 83 

themselves. On the farms in Scotland, there were 
hundreds of ^' Scotch lassies," bareheaded and 
barefooted, with legs like Indiana prize beets. 

EXPENSES, JULY 23— YORK, ENGLAND. 

Lodging, $0 42 

Attendance, 14 

Candle, 7 

Breakfast, 42 

Guide-book, ....... 28 

Cathedral fees, 14 

Sandwich (size of visiting-card), . . . 5 

London Underground Railroad, . . 7 

Dinner, 56 

Lodging, 84 

Attendance, 14 

Candle, 7 

LONDON. 

I came up out of the ground suddenly into sun- 
light, into the heart of London — the centre of 
Great Britain's glory — Trafalgar Square. A 
swift ride from Edinburgh, through southern 
Scotland and northern England, to a suburban 
station at London, then down a series of day- 
lighted granite stairways to an underground 
railroad, where another train and locomotive 
sped us like lightning past other long, brilliantly 
lighted trains, filled with gay people under the 
world's metropolis, with its civilization and 
wealth, and all its network of subterranean im- 



84 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

provements still above us, and here I am in the 
centre of London, without passing through that 
slow filtering process and the disenchanting and 
unfavorable suburban scenes so common to an 
introduction to our own cities. 

The rapidity with which the Londoners dart 
about their city underground is a demonstration 
of the need, in this respect, of our metropolis. 

Riding on the underground railway reveals an 
outlay of capital that can not be realized until the 
results are looked upon. The equipments, iron, 
gauge, locomotives, etc., are all as solid, broad, 
and heavy as our Erie's. The depots, many of 
them, are as exteijsive as some of our through- 
line depots — say Rochester, Cleveland, Boston, 
etc. 

THE PRICE OF LIVING 

in the cities of England, I find, on inquiry, is 
about as dear to a family as in the American 
cities, or New-York and Brooklyn. In the rural 
districts, it is higher than in the American rural 
districts. But wages are from a third to a half 
lower. Farm laborers get from 75 cents to $1 a 
day, in harvest; paviors in London, $1.50 to $1.75 
per day ; and laborers, $1 a day. 

A walk through the vast meat and vegetable 
markets was delightfully cool. No ice is used on 
the meat or fish, as a general thing. In the gene- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 85 

ral market, if the meat is not sold, they keep it 
until the next day without ice. Every thing- was 
neat and pure; no confusion or disagreeable 
scenes. With the thirty-five thousand beeves 
used daily here, and other things in proportion, 
the mind would naturally anticipate disorder. 
But, on the contrary, there is as much system in 
this vast ramification of supply as in this civil 
government. Much of the garden-truck is raised 
within thirty miles of the city. All the railroads 
are given up at night to this, and to milk which 
may come from two hundred to three hundred 
miles north. But here you find fresh fruits, and 
even flowers and fern-leaves, every morning — Ire- 
land, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, 
and the United States and Canada contributing 
the fruit. 

CITY TRAVEL. 

The omnibuses ply generally through the 
centre of the city, and connect with the horse 
cars ("tramways") that commence at the su 
burbs, or, rather, remote from the centre. The 
underground routes are for longer distances 
through and through the city, and have stations 
not closer than half a mile. They are capacious, 
vast, costly, and open to the light of day. 
The elevated routes are those from the country. 

Probably the most general impression that 



86 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

strikes the mind, on approaching London, is the 
mysterious and troubled thought how that com- 
pact mass of three millions of people are daily 
fed. It will take but twenty-four hours to an- 
swer the conjecture, if one will visit the va- 
rious markets and milk-stations. The fact will 
be readily observed that the faces and move- 
ments of the entire people indicate ease, con- 
tentment, and plenty. The influences of stern 
and well-defined laws, and of their ministers 
and executors, permeate everywhere ; law and 
order universally prevail; and, by the conser- 
vative character of the English people, all the 
channels, great and small, of supply are steadily 
preserved, having passed from father to son, and 
grown and become as fixed as the arteries and 
veins of the human body, or as the rivulets and 
rivers that contribute to the sea. The London- 
ers feel as secure and are as happy as the in- 
habitants of an American village. The great 
markets, nightly supplied with fruit from Spain 
and France, or with vegetables from France and 
Germany, or with beeves, mutton, and milk 
from England and Scotland, or with pigs and 
potatoes from Ireland, are conducted with the 
quiet system of any village market. There are 
three or four grand markets, in the first instance, 
supplied by sailing-craft from the sea, and wagons 
from the country, infinitely cleaner and more 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 8/ 

orderly than the New- York markets, and they 
supply the retail grocers and meat-market men 
throughout the city. For about thirty miles 
about London, the soil is largely devoted to gar- 
dening ; but most of the land of Great Britain is 
used for grazing, to furnish London with its 
roast beef and mutton-chops ; thus compelling 
London and England to depend upon other parts 
of the world for their cereals. It is understood 
that England is not directly self-supporting, 
except in the way of exchange; and that if an 
embargo were to be suddenly laid on the food of 
other countries, it Avould, for a time, produce 
frightful disturbance in England. But, in answer 
to this, when a foreigner sees the vast manufac- 
tories throughout the country, and the stupen- 
dous docks and the system of shipping, his 
commiseration, he finds, has been ludicrously mis- 
placed. 

EXPENSES, JULY 24. 

Breakfast, $0 49 

Omnibuses, 24 ' 

Dinner, 49 

Supper, -40 

House of Commons, fees to — no matter, . 42 

American Reading-Rooms, . . . i 12 

Thames Tunnel and return, . . . . 5 

Fire-tower book, ..... 9 

Boot-blacking twice, 9 

$3 39 



88 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

POLITICALLY, 

London is a mere congeries of many separate 
municipalities — about seventy ancient townships 
that have grown into a confluent mass, and have an 
independent political existence still, their bound- 
aries invisible to the general observer, as those 
of the separate wards in one of our cities. London 
proper, as a municipality, bears about the same 
relation to the metropolis known throughout the 
world as London, as any one central ward does 
to the whole of any large American city. Each 
of these many parishes has an independent con- 
trol in local government, such as lamp-lighting, 
policing, street-sweeping, etc. ; but Parliament, in 
order to give a uniformity throughout the metro- 
polis in public improvements and good order, 
has organized whatas known as the Metropolitan 
Board of Works, who have charge of water- 
supply, the sewage, and the grading and paving. 
There is no such body as a Board of Aldermen 
for the general city of London, and the " Lord 
Mayor" has only to do with a very small patch 
within the metropolis. 

The people are busy at their private vocations, 
knowing and caring but little about the adminis- 
tration of civil government, paying their taxes 
without a murmur, feeling ^'God save the 
Queen," and respecting and standing by their 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 89 

nobility and Parliament. Above all elements, 
there will be noticed, throughout the streets and 
at public gatherings, that all-pervading feeling 
of good-humor and waggery, good eating and 
drinking and contentment, more comfortable to 
behold than the aspect of hurry, agitation, and 
gloom that make up the faces of the people in 
our American cities. Right in the heart of the 
metropolis — London — may be seen, any day, 
processions of Sabbath-school children, on picnic 
and social excursions to the country, on trains 
and on the boats on the Thames". 

Of course, we can not attempt a description of 
the various objects* of interest ; but we may enu- 
merate them, and state the various facilities for 
seeing them. The expenses of sight-seeing are 
by the shilling an item. The shillings fly easily, 
and the English can poultice them out of the 
visitor about as well as any people in the world. 
About every place of public interest costs a 
shilling, and the cab-fares are about a shilling a 
mile (about twenty-eight cents United States 
currency). The omnibuses and horse-cars are 
about a penny a mile, with which and the Hansom 
cabs, the underground railroads, and the Thames 
boats, the visitor is enabled to get very rapidly 
to the various places of interest. To see the 
surface of London and its life does not require 
man;^ days, if one will use the ordinary sharp- 



go ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

ness, self-reliance, enterprise, and vigor that he 
does at home. 

EXPENSES, JULY 25. 

Breakfast, $0 22 

Newspapers, 12 

Westminster Abbey guide-book, . . . 28 

London Tower fee, 28 

London Tower guide-book, .... 14 

Dinner, ^ . . 28 

Omnibuses, 22 

Fruit, . 9 

Stationery, . . . . . . . 56 

Walking-stick, 28 

Supper, 42 

$2 89 
LODGINGS. 

The writer, on landing from Edinburgh, took 
the underground cars for threepence halfpenny 
(seven cents) to the Strand — the centre or Broad- 
way of London — and there, with his little black 
valise, he walked only one block, to Craven street, 
commonly patronized by Americans, before he dis- 
covered a nice hall bedroom in a private family 
for ten shillings a week (two dollars and eighty 
cents), including lights, boots, and attendance. 
He then obtained a map of London, to tho- 
roughly study during the evening, had a comfort- 
able night's rest, and the next day — -the second 
one in London — rode all over the city on the om- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 9I 

nibuses, tramways, and boats, familiarizing him- 
self with its general features, paying only about 
half a dollar for fares, and then was ready to take 
matters up by detail. 

And now we come to the interesting subject of 

THE UNCTUOUS SHILLING 

and the restaurants. I ate wherever I found my- 
self hungry, always ''fetching up " at my lodgings 
in good season at night, thoroughly tired, and 
ready for a good sleep, after enlarging, systema- 
tizing, and filing away my notes of the day. 

The visitor will have many an extortionate fee 
to pay, and many an insinuation or importunity 
for a shilling. He had better pay pleasantly, for 
he gets his money's worth everywhere. 

The English have started upon Americans the 
well-known satire, " The almighty dollar," but 
they ought to be silenced with, '^ The unctuous 
shilling," for it will go farther and belittle more 
manhood in England than a dollar will in Ameri- 
ca. I have asked a laborer, apparently in employ- 
ment, the direction to a boat, and after informing 
me, he has followed me for the " price of a pint 
of beer " as a compensation. But I will dismiss 
this part of that subject by boldly asserting that, 
regardless of ministers plenipotentiary, rules, 
guards and police, one can hear even the British 
lion roar in Parliament for two and sixpence a 



92 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

night. This I did three nights in the House of 
Commons, and one in the House of Lords. 

EXPENSES, JULY 26— SUNDAY. 

Newspapers $0 14 

Breakfast, . . . . . . . , 42 

Omnibuses, 14 

$0 70 

Desiring very much to visit Parliament, I in- 
quired of Mr. Bowles, the proprietor of the 
American Reading-room, as to the means. He 
said Americans generally applied to the United 
States Minister, but that was a slow and uncertain 
means, and that if I would '' tip '' one of the at- 
tendants two and sixpence, it would be the rea- 
diest way of effecting an entrance. Having made 
the acquaintance of the Hon. Mr. Butt, of Ireland, 
and having his autograph on one of my cards, I 
went to the Commons, and with it passed one 
after another of the police to the corridor next 
the chamber. Mr. B. not being in the house that 
evening, my long delay and disappointment at- 
tracted the notice of one of the officials in atten- 
dance, who, by his conversation with and manner 
toward me, impressed me as an uncommonly 
congenial fellow. In a very kind and sympathiz- 
ing way, he said that he had a member's pass 
for some other visitor who, likely, would not be 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 93 

present, and that it was at my disposal. I thanked 
him, and told him it was no more than right that 
these little courtesies should be reciprocated, but 
that I had no change less than a sovereign except 
one shilling and eightpence, and that I would 
be mortified to offer him that small amount. He 
said, " Don't mention it ;" but I found his a ready 
palm ; and, telling him that if I came again I 
would do better by him, I received the pass ; but 
having been seen loitering about there nearly 
two hours, I had to be disposed of in a round- 
about way, and accordingly Avas taken to the 
outer corridor, and winked over to another offi- 
cial, who had in charge the next squad of visitors 
in waiting. Having once got into the gallery, 
which, by the way, is a small perch at one end of 
the chamber, another very " congenial " person 
in attendance made my acquaintance. I was in- 
formed by him also that he had a member's pass 
for some visitor who would not likely avail him 
self of it. I told him that I had nothing short of a 
sovereign, and I was too poor to give that. He, 
too, said, " Oh! don't mention it;" but before we 
finished conversation, ke offered to go and get my 
sovereign changed. I was thus admitted the next 
and the third night under the same bargain, and 
might have continued on indefinitely. 

I supposed that the House of Lords would be 
hedged in with more dignity ; but, on telling an 



94 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

American resident of my success in entering the 
Commons, he replied that I could safely try the 
same thing on with the Lords. I went there, how- 
ever, with our Minister's ticket. I there found 
another very ''congenial" attendant, who soon 
made my acquaintance. He was venerable 
enough for a grandfather, august enough for a 
lord, and had a four-inch star on his coat. He 
asked me to tarry a moment after the other visitors 
had left. He produced a page or two of auto- 
graphs, which he said he had collected for a 
countryman of mine who had not called for them, 
and that he would not mind turning them over to 
me " for a trifle." I became assured that ''for a 
trifle," I could have the assistance of this kind 
and hospitable gentleman in visiting the Lords ; 
which, however, I failed to do, having more in- 
teresting objects. 

EXPENSES, JULY 2J. 

Breakfast, $o 42 

St. Paul's Cathedral, crypt, ball, and catafalques, 84 

Dinner, 40 

Pint Champagne (felt bad), ... 84 

Waiter, ....... 7 

Omnibuses, ....... 14 

Paper collars, 28 

Paper cuffs, 28 

House Commons, fees to, ... 56 

$3 83 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 95 

At Westminster Abbey, while Avandering in 
that sacred spot, the Poets' Corner, an attendant, 
in a long black surplice, thrust upon me a ticket 
for a privileged seat in the ensuing Sunday even- 
ing's service. Not knowing that I could use it, 
as I desired to hear Spurgeon, and as my shillings 
had been melting away like snow-flakes, I did 
not offer him a shilling ; but every time I visited 
the Abbey, he turned up before me as suddenly, 
unexpectedly, and silently as Banquo's ghost. 
After a while, I dispatched him with a shilling. 
Now that I have returned and am earning shil- 
lings as before, I feel very mean at not having 
given this man one at first, as he was so 
" congenial." 

Now, as to the 

RESTAURANTS. 

As an economical tourist, the reader will have a 
curiosity to know how the writer lived. The 
diary of expenses will show. The English and 
all Europe are as far behind Americans in the 
restaurant and hotel business as they are in run- 
ning railroads. The meals are not as cheap nor 
as ready as in America. The call for a cup of tea 
generally brings a pot large enough for a family, 
for which you have to pay ; and, in the country 
inns and restaurants, and in many city ones, a 
demand for potatoes at breakfast is looked upon 
as '' houtrageous." 



96 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

THE HOTELS 

have not that open, public place at the entrance 
which is common to the offices of the American 
hotels, making the lower part really a public ex- 
change, where men meet in business and social 
intercourse. An English hotel or inn, however 
large, has a little lodge in the hallway, generally at- 
tended by a female, and there is no place to loiter 
or rest, or to study the character of the house or 
its inmates before engaging a lodgment ; there is 
generally no table d'hote or regular hour of eating, 
and the matter of engaging board is almost as 
laborious as hiring a house and initiating house- 
keeping. If the house is full of guests, they are 
secluded in their rooms, and there is no place 
of general assembly. 

EXPENSES, JULY 28. 

House of Commons(fees,as before, irregular), % 70 

Breakfast, 46 

Catalogue National Gallery, ... 28 

Kensington Gardens, 28 

Zoological Gardens, 28 

Dinner, 44 

Omnibuses and underground, ... 28 

%2 72 

VARIETIES. 

One visiting London should never get more 
than ten minutes' distance from his umbrella. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 97 

The small boys, before their teens, wear '^ plug " 
hats. 

The horses have no heel nor toe corks on their 
shoes. 

Horse-cars are called " tramways," and they 
and the omnibuses are limited as to the number 
of occupants. 

There are no news-cries on the streets ; and 
the boot-blacks are limited by law to a penny a 
shine. 

The outside walls of most of the buildings are 
dingy and sooty, caused by the damp weather 
upon the smoke of the bituminous coal ; but 
the interior of the shops is brilliant and richly 
stocked. 

There are no coffin-shops essaying an inviting 
display of their wares, as in America. 

The street-sweeping machines are • at work 
during the entire day ; and boys, with dust-pans 
and brushes, gather horse-manure constantly, the 
parishes being paid for the privilege of taking 
the manure. 

I found the notorious fish-women of Billings- 
gate all to be fish-men. 

Private funerals are excessively lugubrious ; 
horses and hearses nod with sable plumes, and 
artistic mourners are hired, trapped with super- 
fluous black. All through Europe, this imposing 
character of private funerals is characteristic ; 



98 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

they do not trot to their funerals, nor toll the 
knells by machinery, as we do. In Versailles, in 
France, I saw a corpse displayed in its coffin all 
day in front of the residence. The priest, bare- 
headed, heads the procession on its way to the 
church, and the bystanders, as the funeral passes, 
are accustomed to raise their hats. 

POSTAL TELEGRAPH. 

A most convenient thing in England, which our 
country ought to imitate, is the postal telegraph. 
You may convey twenty words to the most dis- 
tant part of England, Ireland, or Scotland for a 
shilling. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Many of the things mentioned below are main 
attractions, each worth a trip across the Atlantic. 
There is the Tower, once the residence of the 
sovereigns, and the scene of many a state tragedy. 
There are beheading axes and blocks, and the 
suits of armor worn by all its kings, one hun- 
dred and seventy-five thousand stand of new arms 
ready for immediate use, and all of England's war 
panoply for ages ; all forming a wonderful and 
impressive museum wherein days may be spent 
with interest. The British Museum, the Royal 
Academy of Painting, the Sydenham Crystal 
Palace, Windsor Castle — some miles out of the 
city — the Fire Tower, the Thames Tunnel, the 
Live-Meat Market, the Thames bridges, are all im- 
posing objects^of visit. The parks and gardens, 
in finish and refinement, do not equal Central 
Park, New- York, nor Prospect Park, Brooklyn ; 
but they bear indications of what is a great deal 
better — a thoroughly democratic use of them by 
the people. In St. James's Park, not far from 



100 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

Buckingham Palace, and within forty steps of St. 
Janies's Palace, 1 saw eight or ten cows tied to 
trees on the public mall, to supply warm milk for 
the many children who are driven about in baby- 
wagons — and this right in the heart of the metro- 
polis. This characteristic is general to the public 
parks throughout Europe, and even to the gar- 
dens of the royal palaces. The people have more 
free and indulgent use of them than of the Ameri- 
can parks ; having more seats, more shade, and 
more grass-lounging. The Zoological Gardens 
in these parks are infinitely superior to any thing 
of the kind in America. 

EXPENSES, JULY 29. 

Breakfast, . . ' $o 56 

Catalogue British Museum, .... 9 
Fare to Woolwich Academy, . . . 28 

Dinner (mean one), 40 

Supper, ....... 40 

Met Americans, 84 

$2 57 

Ten cents gave me a ride down the Thames to 
Woolwich. After repeated attempts with our 
Minister Plenipotentiary, I failed to get admis- 
sion to Woolwich Arsenal, which is kept secluded 
from all the world ; but I visited the Academy 
and grounds where England's boys are trained 
for officers, and where there is a vast and won- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. lOI 

derful museum of ordnance. There are captured 
cannon from Turkey and China a hundred and 
fifty years old, and some of them twenty feet long; 
there are captured ordnance of all sizes, ages, 
and from all countries, from the rudest construc- 
tion to the modern steel rifled-cannon ; and there 
are steel plates a foot thick which have been per- 
forated like paper by steel shot. 

TRAFALGAR SQUARE 

is the centre of interest. Standing on the steps 
of the National Gallery, there is a broad, open 
plaza of two or three acres, with basin and foun- 
tain, and bronze equestrian statues. In the cen- 
tre, one hundred and fifty feet high, is the monu- 
ment to England's historic idol. Admiral Nelson, 
around which are four bronze lions couchant, each 
twenty feet .long, that seem to typify the power 
of England, and ready to roar so as to shake 
the earth. Just to the left is old Northumber- 
land House, the seat of the Percys ; to the right is 
St. James's Park and Buckingham Palace ; farther 
down Parliament street are the Horse Guards — 
the beau-ideal of the dragoon, and always on 
duty ; next are seen the new government offices, 
and, lastly, the Parliament buildings, the Palmer- 
ston Monument, and Westminster Abbey. All 
this is within the space of a few blocks. 



102 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

This contains the tombs of about one thou- 
sand celebrities — military, literary, scientific, and 
princely. Here we read upon tablets, beautiful 
verse or prose, composed in sacred regard for the 
scenes around ; and yet here, too, we see corrod- 
ing away the tombs of the very authors of those 
tablets. I stood over the bosom of Charles Dick- 
ens before I was aware of it, the spot of his burial 
being marked by a carving in the slab in the floor 
of the transept in the Poets* Corner. At the feet 
of Dickens are the remains of Garrick and his 
Avife ; by their side, Samuel Johnson ; by his side, 
Sheridan ; by the side of Dickens, Macaulay ; and 
at the head of Macaulay, Handel. I sat near the 
ashes of Handel on Sunday evening while the 
choir and organ of the abbey performed his Hal- 
lelujah Chorus in a manner I never heard equaled 
in America. 

There is the old oak chair in which have been 
crowned all the sovereigns of England, from 
William the Norman and Victoria, inclusive. 

EXPENSES, JULY 30. 

Breakfast, $0 56 

Boots and papers, ...... 9 

Fare to Windsor Castle, .... 70 

Guide-book for same, 28 

Lunch, 19 

|i 82 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 103 

While in Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, we saw 
the room of Mary Queen of Scots as she left it, 
and the private supper-room where Rizzio was 
assassinated in her presence, tv/o or three months 
before James I. was born. We also saw the room 
in Edinburgh Castle where he was born, and the 
window from which he was lowered as an infant 
prince in a basket. Here, in Westminster Abbey, 
side by side, repose Queen Mary, Queen Bess 
(who beheaded her), and James I.,the son of Queen 
Mary, who reigned over England for forty years, 
and had his mother's body deposited in this place. 

PRICES OF LIVING. 

We often hear it said by Englishmen in Ameri- 
ca, that they can get along as well over there as 
here. From a comparison of the prices which I 
ascertained there,I can not believe that statement. 
I inquired of housekeepers, grocery and meat- 
market men for the different prices, and here 
copy them from my diary : 

Porterhouse steak, 14 pence, . . 32 cents. 

Butter, in July, 18 pence, ... 42 " 

Potatoes, for 14 lbs., .... 75 " 

Bread, for 4-lb. loaf, . . . . 8 " 

Flour, per lb., 7i " 

Milk, per quart, 11 " 

Railroad laborers, per day, 3^-. 6d. . 98 '• 

Paviors, per day, 2s. 6d to 3^-. 6d. — 70 to 98 " 
Masons, " 4^. to 55-. 6^, — $1.12 to $1.54 ; 



104 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

I found, on inquiring, that the prices of produce 
in the country were nearer to city prices than in 
America. It will be seen by the above facts that 
while the cost of subsistence to the poor man is 
as high as here, the wages are only one half, but 
there the price of clothing, the equipments of life, 
and rental are much cheaper than here. 

EXPENSES, JULY 3I. 

Breakfast, $0 40 

Fare to Isle of Wight and return, third-class, 3 02 

Dinner, 61 

Lodging, 56 

U 59 
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. 

^ Placarded all about is the following: "Visitors 
to the Cathedral are requested not to put on their 
hats in any part of the sacred building, and not 
to talk on subjects or in a tone of voice inconsis- 
tent with the respect which is due to the house 
of God." And yet two thirds of the mortuary 
honors within the building are in commemora- 
tion of butchers of their race — military and naval 
heroes, who have the best places and costliest 
monuments. The sarcophagi of Wellington and 
Nelson are in the crypt, and are an imposing 
sight. 

The Thames, up as far as London Bridge, which 
is at about the centre of the city, admits of the 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. ' I05 

largest vessels. It is under this part that the 
tunnel is ; above London Bridge there are many 
other bridges, all of heaviest masonry and iron. 
The tide is always coming in or going out very 
swiftly, because it rises twenty-one feet. Of 
course, this leaves a wide beach on each side of 
the river, leaving the store-houses high and dry 
at ebb-tide. Hence the large vessels are usually 
anchored out in the stream, and lighters convey 
the freight to the store-houses, except such as 
have locks, where the tide at its flood is shut in, 
thus in many places floating the largest vessels 
twenty-one feet above the other vessels at anchor 
in the river. This lock-dockage in London is 
immense. 

The river steamers are low and black ; the pilot 
is at the stern, and the look-out at the bow tells 
him and the engineer what to do, thus employing 
an extra man more than on American boats, 
when a bell would answer. 

But we must consume no more time about 
London, and leave a thousand interesting things 
undescribed. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST I. 

Breakfast, $0 42 

Dinner, 56 

Lunch, 28 

Treated Queen's baker at Osborne to hear him 
blow, ....... 12 

$1 38 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE ISLE OF WIGHT AND THE QUEEN. 
EXPENSES, AUGUST 2. 

Lodging, . . . . . . . $0 56 

Breakfast, 40 

Cab, . 56 

Hair-dressing, 14 

Dinner, 56 

Ferry from Isle of Wight, ... 22 

Car to station, 6 

Cab in London, 84 



$3 34 
Three dollars and two cents, by third-class 
car, and with very acceptable company, takes us 
from London to the Isle of Wight and return. 
This beautiful island at the south of England, 
washed on all sides by the purest waves of the 
ocean, and continually fanned in the summer by 
refreshing breezes, contains diversified scenery, 
and is altogether a lovely spot worthy as a retreat 
for rest arid summer refreshment. From England's 
earliest history, it has been a favorite place of re- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. lO/ 

sort for its monarchs and nobility. The Queen 
thinks the sea-water here is more refreshing for 
bathing than elsewhere, and has it transported in 
casks to London, and even hundreds of miles north 
— asfaras Balmoral, Scotland. The American who 
escapes the hot and cry climate of his own coun- 
try, would find at the Isle of Wight the most in- 
vigorating and bracing change. Aside from the 
inspiriting influences of the scenery and the cli- 
mate, the cool, sweet breezes, the pure fresh and 
salt waters, and the clean, gravelly beaches, soci- 
ety has an air of respectable ease, content, and 
retirement, away from the bustle and drive of 
business life. And yet the shopkeepers and 
boarding-house and hotel keepers have an eye to 
the main chance during the visiting season ; but 
the character of comparative ease in the island 
may be inferred from the fact that there is no 
business interest of a general nature, such as man- 
ufacturing or commerce. 

ROYALTY. 

When the writer was at Ryde, in the early part of 
August, the island was honored with the presence 
of the Queen of England, the Prince and Princess 
of Wales, the Crown Prince and Princess of Prus- 
sia, and the Empress of Austria. Queen Victoria 
has a farm there, established by Prince Albert, 
but the visit of the Crown Prince of Prus- 



I08 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

sia was, to the native islanders, a novelty. Near 
the landing at Ryde, the people had erected a tem- 
porary arch of wood, painted in imitation of stone, 
and covered with evergreens, and on a scroll over 
the top the words, '^ Gott mit uns." There were 
placards about the town, by the Mayor, exhorting 
the people to good behavior during the presence 
of the royal visitors, prescribing their mode of con- 
duct, and enjoining them not to ''stare at, or other- 
wise make disagreeable the visit of, their royal 
guests." I thought if it had been a Yankee 
mayor who had assumed to thus instruct his con- 
stituents in manners, he would be ridiculed into his 
grave. How much of presumption those people 
over there can take from their governors remains 
to be fathomed. 

The tall, blonde-whiskered Prussian Prince, 
Frederick William, so familiar in the war pictures 
of the Emperor William's staff, I had the good for- 
tune to see. At the long and beautiful pier lay the 
Queen's yacht — a large and magnificent steamboat, 
manned with the best seamen, in neat sailor uni- 
forms, and officers in chapeaux, epaulettes, swords, 
etc. It was rumored that at 10.20 the Crown Prince 
and Princess of Prussia would embark. About a 
hundred ladies and gentlemen were on the pier 
surrounding the ropes. Presently the ''tram" 
(horse-car) came down — no carriages being admit- 
ted on the pier — and two middle-aged gentlemen. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. IO9 

in plain business clothing,alighted, and walked in a 
business-like way toward the gang-plank; they 
were followed by a ta.ll, pleasant-looking man, in 
brown cheviot, carrying a small bandbox, and on 
his arm a plain-looking and plainly-dressed Eng- 
lish girl with rather rough skin. These were the 
Prince of Prussia and his wife. Queen Victoria's 
eldest daughter. She hung upon his arm as though 
she liked him. I was won by their simplicity and 
graceful and easy ways. The prince is a splendid- 
looking man ; his pictures do him injustice. He 
is tall, powerful, well-formed, quick, easy and 
dignified in carriage ; and lifted his hat, with a 
graceful air and pleasant smile, to those Avho sa- 
luted him as he walked quickly to the gang-plank, 
upon which he handed the princess. The )^acht 
contained no other passengers, and started off, in 
about the time it takes to read this, for the train, 
wherefor the regular boat with the subject pas- 
sengers was ready and followed. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 3., 

Breakfast, $0 42 

Dinner '82 

Crystal Palace at Sydenham, fare, admission, 

and return, first class, .... 82 

Supper, 28 

Lodging, boots, and light, back from July 24 

to date, inclusive, in London, . . 7 28 

$9 62 



no ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

THE EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA AND SUITE 

arrived at the pier at 5 o'clock in the morning, and 
before the city (Ryde) was awake, her Highness 
was in her villa. 

THE queen's villa. 

On this island, on the northern slope, Prince 
Albert bought an immense tract, embracing sev- 
eral small farms. A line from the beach around 
the Queen's farm two miles inland and to the 
beach again, would be about six miles in length. 
It is a high and lovely portion of the island ; the 
sea-water is pure and limpid ; fresh streams and 
springs abound. The mansion is sequestered 
from the thoroughfares in the interior by hedges 
and a mass of woods consisting of oak, elm, haw- 
thorn, etc., with every mile or so a " lodge," or 
entrance of high-arched stone and iron, and a 
porter's residence. On the gate is the monogram 
" V. A." Within this demesne is the Queen's 
residence, with her royal household and suite ; 
throughout the grounds are dispersed quiet 
policemen, effective but unobtrusive, and un- 
seen by the royal eyes. The extreme menials, 
such as the outriders, the ostlers, the baker, the 
packer, porters, etc., reside entirely outside, 
generally boarding with the villagers or farmers. 
Here the Queen secludes herself from a people 
who support her so extravagantly, occasionally 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. Ill 

taking a rapid drive around outside, with an ad- 
vanced outrider ready to clear away obstructions. 
The Queen "runs" this farm of hundreds of acres, 

SELLS THE PRODUCE, 

and pockets the money. The royal family have 
a bathing-house on the beach, but " 'er Majesty 
has the wawtah brought to the aouse in cahsks, 
and halso sent to Windsor, Buckingham, and 
Balmoral in cahsks." 

Being accidentall}^ in Ryde for the Sabbath, I 
concluded to make the most of the time by going 
out to 

OSBORNE, 

where it was said " 'er Majesty" would attend 
church. Distance, seven miles ; carriage fee, 
$3.30. Whether I should pay this for a sight of 
royalty, I doubted ; but I bethought me of an ex- 
cellent resource — my foot-carriage — and had a 
very pleasant stroll and a sound sleep at night. 
Being told by a ''yeoman," with a tired look, and 
a hoe on his shoulder, that " 'er Majesty was 
hout a driving, and would pahs in at this lodge," 
I sat down and waited until dark — she having 
"pahsed" in at another lodge a few rods distant. 

A NIGHT OPPOSITE 

the Queen's place was not without much amuse- 
ment and instruction. The " Prince oi Wales 



112 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

Hotel," a lone tavern on the other side of the 
road, into which the Prince of Wales never en- 
tered (he has a cottage a few rods off), furnishes 
refreshment for man and beast — the " beasts" 
predominating ; for the ostler, and the Queen's 
baker, and one or two more of '' 'er people," were 
there in their mugs. Two portly dames waited 
upon them at the bar, and bandied jests with 
them. 

One of them discoursed to me the following : 

'' The Royal Princess is a fine lady ; no more 
pride habout Vr nor there his habout you, not *alf 
so much as about some of them 'alf-bred ones. She 
came hout to where I was a cleanin' the carriage, 
and says she, ' Wair is Judkins ?' Says I, ' He's 
gone, your Roil Tness. Wat is it hi can do, your 
^Roil Tness?' Says she, 'Oh! nuthin', only I've 
left my handkerchief in the coach.' Says I, ' I'll 
get it, yer Roil 'Iness.' Says she, ' Thank you, 
thank you very much.' S/ies a lady. She ain't no 
pride in 'er." 

With whom the coachman contrasted her so 
favorably, I did not inquire. 

Walking back to Ryde with two clerks, who 
earn fifteen dollars per week, conversation with 
them showed the conservatism and loyalty of the 
lower half of the people. They believed in the 
Queen and her expense, and ridiculed America. 



CHAPTER X, 

EATING. 

Many Americans remark, upon their return, 
that they had not had a good " square" meal while 
in Europe. Making allowances for the difference 
in taste between Europeans and Americans, and 
admitting that the Europeans are old enough and 
know enough to please themselves in their habits 
of dietetics, yet I think they would hke the Ame- 
rican system of setting a table, if it were once in- 
troduced. In Continental Europe, particularly, 
there is an avoidance of vegetables for the hotel- 
tables ; the markets in Italy, France, and Austria 
are as laden with fruits and vegetables, and are 
as cheap, as in America ; but we were starved for 
want of them in hotels. Then they carry their 
" course" system to an absurd degree. In Ame- 
rica, the whole table is generally laden at once 
with every thing that is to be had, so that a per- 
son may partake according to his taste, time, and 
other personal circumstances, and we have great- 



114 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN. TOURIST. 

er varieties of veg^etables and more cookery b}^ 
boiling-. In Europe, the universal custom at table 
dlidte (taabledote) is to give each article of meat 
a separate course. A description of one will suf- 
fice for the general way Americans go over the 
Continent in discomfort as to meals. As a guest 
at a hotel, you are expected to breakfast at any 
time between eight and twelve. To the indus- 
trious and early-rising American, the loss of four 
hours' daylight is not relishable. It was my 
custom to wander about and waste two hours in 
discomfiture before I could get any breakfast. 
Repairing to the breakfast-hall at the very mo- 
ment of eight o'clock, I would be regarded by 
steward, waiters, and landlord with curiosity. I 
would take a seat alone at a cold, blank table, 
instead of seeing a table laden with a tempting 
breakfast and surrounded with cheerful company, 
as here at home. Nothing would be ready, and, 
after giving the order to a waiter with a black 
dress-coat and pants, white necktie, and perhaps 
white gloves, I would have to wait fifteen minutes 
or half an hour for it. But justice should add 
that when it does arrive, the cooking and flavor 
are rather better than averaged in America. 

Dinner will not be had until six o'clock, and in 
the interim I have to take a lunch at my own ex- 
pense somewhere outside, although having en- 
gaged full board at the hotel. And at the restau- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. II 5 

rants, one can never calculate in advance the ex- 
pense of a meaL 

Dinner-hour arriving, the guests all seem to 
be a leisurely class who don't care whether 
they eat or not, and appear to enjoy each other's 
society more than their food. While the guests 
are desultorily getting their seats, you have an 
opportunity to select and order your wine. The 
water in all Europe is bad, and if you are at a 
hotel that is stylish enough for ice, you will have 
a vessel of it set before you, for which you will 
have to pay. The first course is a very small 
dish of soup. The soup-plates being cleared, 
there is another mysterious signal, and you are 
permitted to have a small plate of fish. Now we 
brightly anticipate we shall see the dinner come 
on ; but a very small piece of beef a la mode is 
brought, and the waiter passes on ; there is not a 
sign of a vegetable nor a relish on the table, and 
your bread having gone with your soup, you are 
left, like a carnivorous animal, with your one 
piece of meat, which, being devoured, is followed 
by another clean plate, and then another small 
piece of highly seasoned meat of some other 
kind ; perhaps with this will be brought along 
some curiously fixed-up pommes de terre (pum de 
tehr — potatoes) ; your plate again being removed, 
you will have a selection of some curiously fixed- 
up fowl, and nothing else ; and thus after from six 



Il6 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

to eight courses, you have nibbled through a 
dinner unsatisfactorily. Sometimes, Americans 
will get together and exercise their imaginations 
over the details of a boiled dinner. One would 
say, " What would you give to see a table with 
green corn, cucumbers, and tomatoes, boiled tur- 
nips, carrots, onions, and celery, and chow-chow, 
and fresh bread and butter, and pitchers of pure 
water?" — all of which picture would be totally 
strange to a European table. 

With the English, a meal seems to be a private 
and exclusive affair, like family worship. The 
family hide themselves while at it. At a small 
country inn, or at lodgings in the city, the guest 
never gets sight of the family. They will partake 
of their meal in the garret or cellar rather than 
be seen by outward people. Generally speaking, 
the matter of meals is not ready, convenient, free, 
public, and accessible as in America. 

RECAPITULATION OF EXPENSE. 

It will be seen how we have come across the 
ocean by cabin fare, and enjoyed Ireland, Scotland, 
and England, during a period of thirty-seven days, 
for one hundred and eighty-one dollars, currency. 



CHAPTER XT. 

TO FRANCE. 
EXPENSES, AUGUST 4. 

Fare from London to Paris, second-class, $6 75 

Cab in Paris, 40 

Lunch, i . 20 

$7 35 
Iris the wonder of every American who crosses 
the English Channel to the Continent, that where 
there is so much important travel there is so little 
convenience of transportation. The vessels are 
small and dash about like a chip ; the channel is 
always very rough ; confinement in the cabin is 
very nauseating, as every body is sea-sick ; and 
to be on deck requires a firm grip and an oil-cloth 
over-suit. 

I was thrilled with the first sight of France, with 
its centuries of stirring history and romance. The 
first definite object of interest that we could dis- 
tinguish, approaching the harbor of Dieppe (Dee- 
yep), was a colossal representation of the Cruci- 



Il8 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

fixion, standing out upon a bold bluff, as though 
proclaiming the first thing to all comers, 

" I AM THE way!" 

From this point, for over a thousand miles 
through France, Italy, and Austria, I never got 
out of sight of crucifixions and Virgin Marys. To 
me, the people seemed, in their religion, to have 
forgotten the spirit and adopted the letter of the 
law, to have made up their religious devotions 
in symbols and unspiritual idolatry. Besides 
the superfluity of crucifixions. Virgin Marys 
and saints, in both statues and pictures, in the 
churches, schools, and private houses, they were 
about as superfluous in all public places out of 
doors. We met them at the cross-roads, in niches 
in the rocks by the road-side ; we see them on 
hill-tops and mountain-peaks ; on prominent bluffs 
and projecting rocks, that are attractive for their 
picturesqueness ; we see them in the centre of 
agricultural fields, and even over barn-doors, 
superstitiously utilized as Yankee farmers do 
horseshoes — for good luck. In Rome, I saw the 
stubs of marble feet that had been kissed nearly 
away ; and in one case, the'statue of the Saviour, a 
brass foot was substituted for the marble one that 
had been kissed away. Let me indorse myself 
by reaffirming this as a literal fact. I have seen a 
woman kiss a wall at a point where I could notice 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. IIQ 

nothing by its structure to mark it as peculiar, 
and go into a rapturous repetition of kisses of the 
spot. Those polished marble floors in the Roman 
churches, looking too dainty almost for us to 
tread upon, even with our guide in advance, 
would be dotted with the most ragged and filthy 
Italian lazzaroni, in attitudes of idolatry (some of 
them taking advantage of the cool shade and 
quiet to obtain a comfortable " snooze"), whom 
we would not like, unprotected, to meet at night. 
On the side of the marble wall of one of the 
churches is a horizontal groove painted red, and 
over it the words — " At this point the waters 
of the Tiber arose, where they were stopped by 
the intercessions of the Blessed Virgin, but for 
which they would have inundated the city." 
The Presbyterian Scotchman who was in the car- 
riage with us, and alluded to the cowled, gir- 
dled, and sandaled Benedictine monks we met as 
'* heedjeous monster-r-r-rs," scouted this presumed 
intercession of the Virgin Mary, but at the same 
time acknowledged that he and his neighbors in 
Scotland had just been, during a long drouth, 
praying for rain. It is a historical fact that this 
month, the whole Church of England prayed for 
rain. 

But let us return to France. On landing, 
the first very noticeable thing was the French 
soldiers, with their narrow waists and red, baggy 



120 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

trowsers, and the black-gowned priests. Of 
France and Italy, the most prominent things 
now in the eye of recollection are soldiers, 
priests, sabres, and crucifixes ; and where on the 
round earth does public indecency or private ex- 
tortion go further ? 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 5. 

Lodging (HoterAthende), . . . $i oo 

Candle, 30 c. ; soap, 20 c. ; attendance, 20 c, 70 

Boots, 10 c. ; guide-book, 20 c, . . • 3<^ 

Beefsteak and potatoes, 30c.; bread, 5 c.,. 35 

Butter, 2|- c; napkin, 2^ c; table-cloth, 5 c, . 10 
Tea, 10 c. ; fare to Versailles and return, 

first-class, 53 ; glass of wine, 5c., . . 68 

Supper, 53 

$3 66 
The scenery from Dieppe toward Paris we find 
to be the same as we found in the British realm 
as to careful cultivation and good roads and 
hedges, but here is a little more shrubbery, and 
the trees are taller. The country has the same 
aspect of being cleared of forests, and of the hud- 
dling of population about centres. We find the 
same style of cars — the compartment system — as 
in England. Arriving at 

PARIS 

in the night, we at once notice the strong hand 
and vigilant eye of government in the gendarmes 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 121 

(zhondarm) at the station and on the streets. 
A little cab-man, with a red pug-nose and a glazed 
stiff hat, offered to cab two of us to the Hotel 
Athenee for two francs ; arriving there, he de- 
manded two francs and a half. My companion 
very foolishly expostulated in bad French, when 
the French eloquence demonstrated itself in a 
whole hose-full of p's and r's, ending with the 
shake of a card and the only intelligible word 
" taree/y Even by night we knew we were in la 
belle cite (ceetay). I see by the style of Le Grand 
Hotel Athenee that it is very " grand ;" but it is 
late, and I prudently inquire the price of the 
lodging. The answer is, cinq francs (sank frank) 
— five francs. But how does it turn out in the 
morning ? My bill stands thus : Lodging, five 
francs ; candle, one and a half francs ; soap, one 
franc ; attendance, one franc ; boots, a half franc ; 
matches, ten centimes, making in all one dollar 
and eighty-two cents in gold for one night's lodg- 
ing. Well, the smaller hotels and restaurants 
throughout the Continent imitate this. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 6. 

Church of Madeleine, . . . . lo 20 

Guide de Paris, i 60 

Omnibuses, ...... 12 

Arc de Triomphe, 10 

Fruit, 05 

Board per day, 2 20 

$4 27 



122 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

You are charged extra for the butter on your 
bread, for the use of the table-cloth, for a napkin, 
for ice to your wine or water ; and if you do not 
wish to be regarded with expressive disgust by 
monkeys and laughed at by jackasses — an extreme 
depth of degradation for one to fall into — you 
must pay the waiter from two sous up. I was 
told by one American that a landlord charged 
him for receiving and delivering his mail ! One 
never knows only approximately what his bills 
are to be. But as irritating as this may be to the 
American traveler, and as toadying as it makes 
the people about him, still a more absurd and 
even disgusting thing is for this American traveler 
to become annoyed by or to resist these petty 
extortions. The French have what they call 
the golden rule of travel, which we would do 
well to understand ; it is, " Conform cheerfully to 
the usages of the country you are in." 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 7. 

H6tel des Invalides, . . . . $0 08 

Panorama, [40 

Programme, 05 

Soup, . 20 

Board, 2 20 

$2 93 
With dawn appears before us beautiful Paris ! 
We can not, in a book like this, give the details 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 23 

of Parisian attractions. It will suffice for me to 
give a short general impression, and my diary of 
each day's expenses.' 

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF PARIS 

is almost complete. No one could detect in the 
present beauty of the city and gayety of life, 
promenades, open-air concerts, and theatres, any 
results or evidences of the past war, or the havoc 
of the Commune, except the ruins of the Tuileries 
and Hotel de Ville. On that palace of kings and 
emperors are still the words, placed there long 
ago, ^' The Republic of France : Liberty, Equality, 
and Fraternity." The black and red tongues of 
petroleum flame partly licked out and obliterat- 
ed ^' FraUrniU/' that no potentate ever dared 
to remove, and showed the intensity of republi- 
can feeling. It is evident everywhere, in the 
spirit of the people, that they are not "fit " for a 
monarchy ; and the very wildness of the legisla- 
ture comes from their freedom of spirit. The old 
aristocracy, of course, stick to their birthrights 
of fancied elevation, but the French are in no 
mood to squander more millions upon royalty. 
They now see millions upon millions of dollars' 
worth of royal trappings thrown off, now being 
honored only for museums. A French soldier 
told me that the army is entirely republican. 
Under three years of republican or legislative 



124 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

rule, Paris has been restored, the private build- 
ings made good at public expense, business is 
brisk, and the people are as contented and happy 
as other people. 

The distinguishing feature of Paris is the light- 
colored character of its buildings. The Boule- 
vards are long, straight, and broad, and the light- 
colored houses give them a gay appearance ; but 
there is no street in Europe where the amount 
of business is done which is done in Broadway, 
New- York, while that street looks less imposing 
than some of the Parisian streets because of the 
heterogeneous character of its buildings in their 
age, color, and composition. Of the Champs 
Elysees and the Bois de Boulogne, we need not 
say much ; those subjects are familiar. The artis- 
tic displays in Paris are abundant, brilliant, and 
beyond conception until seen. There is where 
we first see that Continental, out-door sociability. 
All the salons or cafes have seats and tables along 
the sidewalks, at which customers sip their wine, 
coffee, or chocolate, or smoke cigars, at their lei- 
sure. (r<^//-lounging in city and in country towns 
is another prominent reminiscence one has of 
Europe. Neither in Great Britain nor Continen- 
tal Europe is there that universality of personal 
industry found in America. All Europeans en- 
joy life and take it more leisurely than we do. 
To draw a contrast in brief, human rest is com- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 25 

monly observed there, while human rest is hardly 
known here. Even our assumed pleasures here 
are painful in their intense excitement ; there, a 
leisurely mood pervades business and pleasure. 
We will briefly notice the palaces of the Louvre 
and Versailles, and then quit France. For eight 
hundred years the site of the Louvre has been the 
residence of kings, and so has the Palace of Ver- 
sailles for two hundred years. No kings or 
courts are in either now ; but they are main- 
tained in all their magnificent garnishment as 
Avhen they were the abodes of royalty ; and the 
pictures in these palaces may be counted by 
miles of distance and millions of money. But 
while on this subject of 

PALACES, 

we might note the general system throughout 
Europe, all of which, except those of St. Pe- 
tersburg, I had the good luck to visit. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 8. 

Cook's diligence, tour to St. Cloud, Bois de 
Boulogne, Palaces of Versailles, Palace 
de Trianon, and Sevres Porcelain 

Works, $2 00 

Fee to the royal carriages, ... 20 

Dinner, . . 40 

Medicine, 20 

Board, 2 20 

SS 00 



126 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST., 

You would be surprised to find what a similar- 
ity they have — as though one had been built in im- 
posing grandeur and taste, and all the rest, with 
royal emulation, successfully patterned after it. 
They are generally composed of a square, with a 
court-yard inside, and around this square is a 
continuous passage by halls and suites of rooms — 
the wealth being principally displayed in pictures, 
statuary, vases, etc. The furniture is generally 
no more costly or unique than that of some wealthy 
private subject. The floors are generally inlaid 
oak, waxed ; and the walls are always covered 
with tapestry, painting, or fresco. Paper, how- 
ever rich, would be the depth of vulgarity. Ex- 
tensiveness is the peculiarity of all princely pal- 
aces, as well as of the grounds — a feature which 
the American mind can hardly realize. Each 
sovereign has from two to half a dozen palaces — 
all but one maintained vacant at the expense of the 
people. The peculiar palatial features that have 
just been mentioned are the same in the English 
and French, the Italian, the Austrian, and the Prus- 
sian palaces. Each has a throne-room, and the 
throne consists generally of a not very imposing 
dais and chair — a mere locality for the sovereign 
during receptions. So it appears the throne of 
a state is not an identical reality so much as it is 
an imaginative seat of the sovereign. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 12/ 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 9 — SUNDAY. 

Omnibuses, $0 06 

Board, 2 20 



$2 26 

In all this vast and complicated government 
of Paris and of France, the respective bureaus 
and records have been preserved intact, and run 
right on, without any interregnums, through all 
the tumbling of the revolutions. The heads of 
departments have been changed, but the clerical 
force has remained mainly the same. Talk about 
the Commune ! Nobody laments the killing of 
the thirty thousand of them by battle and by exe- 
cution ; but there is another commune of intrigu- 
ing, snob monarchists, who ought to come second 
in reprobation — people who care nothing about 
government, peace, or any thing else, but to give 
themselves caste, exclusiveness, and income from 
the pockets of their countrymen, without working 
for their money as honest people do. 

THE ASSEMBLY. 

This absolute body is an object of interest to all 
the world. A seat in the diplomatic gallery a 
whole afternoon, tendered me by Mr. Hoffman, 
of our legation, gave me a leisurely opportunity 
to study them. They occupy the parquette of 
the private theatre in the old palace of Versailles. 



128 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

The President occupies a high seat ; he is in plain 
dress like our own speakers. Below and in front 
of him is a sort of pulpit — the tribune — from which 
only can the House be addressed. This shuts off 
the facilities for " long-windedness," so easy in our 
own legislatures, offered by the members being 
permitted to bob up from their seats with ha- 
rangues. The French Assembly is very disorderly^ 
the whole membership expressing assent or dis- 
sent verbally at almost every sentence, or moving 
about and having loud conversation. The orators 
have to be pointed, terse, clear, and vigorous, 
like one addressing an out-door mob — not calling 
the Assembly a mob — but the manner of the 
speakers is often necessarily like addressing a 
mob. 

Pass through the French Assembly, and it may 
be remarked that if our House of Representatives 
is a^' bear-garden," theirs is a '^ monkey-cage"; but 
they are thoroughly democratic ; and while the 
American Senate is the most dignified in appear- 
ance of any legislative body in the world, yet the 
English Lords and Commons have a character of 
ease, affluence, learning, and respectability per- 
haps unequaled in the world. Oratory, in the 
English Parliament, is unknown, the speeches 
being mere colloquial statements, and very similar 
in style. If an English member should make a 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 29 

sweeping gesture with his arm, it would fairly be 
presumed he was out of taste. 

GAMBETTA 

converses and moves about a good deal, restless, 
not content, but not troubled, good-natured, and 
influential. He never will set the world on fire — 
he is too fat and inclined to the pleasures of sense. 
He is good for forty years yet ; is of medium 
height, is full chested and shouldered, has fat legs, 
a rather waddling walk, and not a direct, positive, 
or forcible gait, a pulpy hand, and is a good liver. 
His hair is black, tinged with gray, thrown back, 
beard full and cropped, face flushed, hand about 
his face and across his mouth a good deal as he 
leans on the back of his seat. 

It was a lucky thought that prompted me to 
attempt to enter 

THE NEW OPERA-HOUSE 

just on the eve of my leaving. I have been in 
the best palaces and throne-rooms of England and 
France, but this is far above any of them. It is 
more than a palace ; it is a very temple in the 
highest idea of massiveness, richness, and beauty. 
It is said to be far grander than any thing of an- 
cient or modern times. It is to cost six millions 
of dollars — this for a compact theatre. It will 



130 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

not be finished in two years. The auditorium is 
large, of course, but it is not as large as the stage ; 
it is not as large as the grand entrance and stair- 
way ; it is not as large as the other saloon-rooms, 
nor is it as large as the portion devoted to dress- 
ing-rooms, which would do credit to any grand 
hotel. There are long corridors with dressing- 
rooms, richly furnished, with large panel plate- 
glass mirrors. Back of the stage is a rehearsing 
theatre, the embellishment of which, in allegorical 
statues in gilt and in fresco, must have cost many 
thousand dollars. Every thing away from the 
auditorium, connected with the performers, seems 
calculated to inspire them. The grand stairway 
has many pillars, huge monoliths of the costliest 
polished marble, in all colors. The grand recep- 
tion-room exceeds the famous Salle du Glace of 
the Versailles palace. It is loo feet long, 40 feet 
high, and 40 feet wide. I was favored with see- 
ing the Italian artists putting on the stucco alle- 
gories, and the representation of exotic plants 
and fruits, the natural models of which were 
present, growing in pots and tubs, for the artists 
to imitate in color and form. Bronze and marble, 
and gold and beautiful colors are lavishly dis- 
played, and under the feet are the finest Mosaic 
floors, composed of pieces no larger than half an 
inch square, but worked into patterns of great 
breadth and variety. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 131 

EXPENSES, AUGUST lO. 

Palace of Industry, $0 20 

Cab, 80 

Theatre, 60 

Pantheon, 20 

Postage and stationer}'-, 40 

Board, 2 20 



$4 40 
THE ARMY 

of France is mainly an army of boys, but is 
surprisingly intelligent. I have conversed with 
many private soldiers in English, and find that 
they possess general intelligence, and some of 
them good knowledge of the science of govern- 
ment, and the political attitude of France and 
other countries. I understand the schools to 
be rather more free to the poor here than in Eng- 
land. In the latter country, although tuition is 
legally free, yet such a searching inquiry is made 
into the circumstances of those applying for free 
schooling that it hurts their pride, and I was told 
by a prominent principal teacher that it was con- 
sidered to be charity. 

PUNCTUALITY 

has not impressed me as a French quality. 
" Toute suite" (immediately) is a universal fib. 
With Americans, minutes are golden grains ; here, 
half an hour is the smallest fraction of time a 



132 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

Frenchman can measure, in the ordinary courses 
of business or life. 

THE WEATHER 

is delightfully cool here in Southern France. 
Summer overcoats are worn in the cars in the 
mornings. I have not felt the warmth yet in 
Europe. In England, it was said to be uncom- 
monly warm, and in France it is called a cool 
summer. 

SOUTH-EAST FRANCE. 

The traveler should approach Geneva by day- 
light. Leaving the Marseilles train at Lyons to 
go eastward, we dash immediately into a most 
rugged and mountainous district, giving us as it 
were a foretaste of Swiss scenery. For fifty 
miles there is , not a level acre. The road runs 
through a deep, wide gorge, and, towering above, 
from a thousand feet to a quarter of a mile, are 
rocks and cliffs. Peasants' cots dot the sides 
wherever there is a small patch of soil. The val- 
ley is in garden cultivation, and industry hums 
over the mountain-torrents. Factories, houses, 
and little churches are jumbled up the mountain- 
sides in fantastic confusion. Cool, bracing moun- 
tain air rushes through the valley. The great, 
thick strata of rock are bent and twisted like pa- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 33 

per. There are too many curious and interesting 
freaks of geology to enumerate. The scenery 
shows me where we have obtained our subjects 
for theatre drop-curtains. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST II. 

Chambermaid, $0 20 

Boots (her husband), 40 

Washing, . . . . . . i 00 

Watchman at New Opera-House, . . 20 

Cab, 40 

Board, ' . . . 2 20 

$4 40 

I entered France with sentiments entirely in 
favor of the country and its people, having been 
soaked, when a lad, by Abbott's History of Napo- 
leon 1. ; but I never was so glad to get off a terri- 
tory or away from a people as I was on leaving 
the frontiers of France for the more calm, free, 
and happy Swiss. The change of manner is 
instantly noticed at the line in the difference 
of the train-hands and railroad officials. In 
France, all officials are '' fussy ;" in England, they 
are pompous ; in Italy, Austria, and Germany, 
they are midway between those characteristics. 
In France, from one end to the other, everywhere 
and at all times, it is fuss, fuss, fuss: you are 
fussed at in the hotels and restaurants, fussed at by 
every porter and guide and concierge (consarge) 



134 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

who has any thing to do with you ; you are scold- 
ed at by the train-conductors and ticket-agents ; 
entering your hotel and leaving it, you have to 
walk the gauntlet of obsequious bows as though 
3^ou were a prince; you can meet with a super- 
fluity of politeness, but can attain no beneficial in- 
timacy. The politeness of continental Europe is 
only face-deep. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 12. 

Cook's Italian tour, second-class fare from 
Paris to Geneva, Mont Blanc, Turin, 
Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Pisa, 
Venice, Milan, Genoa, . . . $55 45 
En route to Macon, lunch, ... 20 

Dinner, . 40 



$56 05 



Paris is so gay, that it is a saying that all good 
Americans go there when they die — or that it is 
a sort of Paradise for Americans. I notice that 
all bad Americans want to go there before they 
die. The American lady who is willing to live in 
Paris, and for a time desert her pure, temperate, 
native land, ought to be scolded. In Paris, wine 
takes the place of water, and the public sugges- 
tions to sexual sensuousness go almost to the 
verge of barbarism ; and in private vice, practi- 
cal men and philosophers know that analogy 
points to a depth that the American mind re- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 35 

fuses to look at. Some European writers have 
said that the blushing of American females, 
young and old, at the displays of nude human 
figures on canvas and in marble, in anatomical 
detail, is from affected prudery and conscious 
passion, and that the reason European females 
don't blush is from purity. I am loth to believe 
this latter proposition where the theatres of the 
capitals are mostly filled with both sexes and all 
ages and conditions of life, and the pieces are 
gagged with " smut ;" where there are such in- 
stitutions as the Dance Mabille, the Students' Ball, 
and even the open-air concerts of the Champs Ely- 
s^e (shanz eleeze), patronized by thousands. Any 
Frenchman would be going a good way to say 
that the French baby inherits natural purity 
above the American baby. And if it does not, 
what is likely to be the result upon the imagi- 
nation or animal nature of a young girl as she 
goes out upon the streets and meets every temp- 
tation and suggestion, from the uncovered public 
urinals to the less gross influences of the shop- 
windows and theatres, statuary and open-air con- 
certs ? The American man who goes to Paris is 
lost before he gets there, and the American lady 
who goes there needs to have a care and to be 
cared for more than she who goes to our Capital, 
Washington. 

The writer sent some letters on this subject 



136 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

from Paris to an American newspaper, which, al- 
though registered in the post-office, never reached 
their destination. 

I should not omit mention of the railroad that 
encircles Paris just inside the wall or enceinte. 
The passenger may ride on the top of the cars, 
with sheltered seats, entirely around the city, 
Avitnessing its beautiful suburbs and points of his- 
torical interest, also the artistic gardening, for 
about sixty cents. 

An American going through Europe will for 
the first time^ really understand hoAV American 
girls are willing to marry titled Europeans and 
forsake the stars and stripes to live in Europe, to 
turn from the old home and friends, and com- 
mence the world again amid all that is strange. 
The reason is that the aristocratic and royalist 
manners of Europe have centred in the capitals 
and large towns, making life there alluring. In 
Europe, we are in the world ; in America, we are 
out of it. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST I3. 

Supper, lodging, and breakfast, . . $0 60 
Boots and chambermaid, .... 20 

(Stopped over at Macon.) 

$0 80 



CHAPTER XII. 

SPEAKING THE LANGUAGES. 

Half of the pleasure and benefit of a European 
trip will be lost unless the tourist has a " smatter- 
ing" at least of French. Where English is not 
spoken at a hotel, railroad-station, or shop in 
Europe, French is likely to be ; and the tourist 
needs but a few elementary phrases in French, a 
general knowledge of its peculiar rules of pro- 
nunciation, and an ordinary school French Gram- 
mar, to get along very well. The tourist is par- 
ticularly recommended to always take and keep 
with him the French Grammar and Reader com- 
bined, with exercises in sentences. From that, he 
may quickly select phrases adapted to all the cir- 
cumstances of his tour. Of course, the more one 
is acquainted with the language of the country 
he is in, the more will be his instruction and plea- 
sure, because there is so much inquiry to be 
made, and so much reply to be given everywhere. 



138 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

Without a knowledge of the language, one goes 
through the country as unsatisfactorily as a deaf 
mute would. Morford's guide-book gives useful 
French phrases and their pronunciation, with 
all other necessary information, and is generally 
preferred by Americans. 

GENEVA AND MONT BLANC. 

I would not wonder if this Switzerland should 
turn out to be the paradise to which we are, 
contingently, destined. Abundance of pure air 
and pure, cold water ; a republican government ; 
political peace, and a spirit and practice of econo- 
my, with no complications nor enemies to require 
a regular professional standing army ; compulsory 
education, and the spirit of William Tell and of 
Calvin working throughout the people — all these 
are substantial blessings. It may be said that 
practically they have never had a war ; they have 
no debt, and local self-government is here in- 
violable. 

GENEVA, 

the princess of cities, is, in her physical aspect, 
worthy the name she bears in art, invention, and 
moral reform. The pulpit of Calvin is here. There 
are two drawbacks to universal happiness, but 
they will dissolve in the progress of time. One is 
the chagrin of the old regime of aristocracy for lost 
prestige, and the other is religious intolerance. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 39 

Here the Protestants are the aggressors, being 
stronger in numbers.than the Papists. The federal 
constitution of 1848 is in many respects identical 
with ours ; but in their budget they provide for the 
support of all the churches — Protestant and Catho- 
lic. But Geneva, independently of all this, is the 
sweetest spot for one who loves a plain, honest, 
quiet life. If there be natural surroundings that 
clear the mind of its dross and elevate the spirits, 
they are here. Mr. Upton, our consul, and a 
most genial and fit representative of us, thinks 
this the prettiest city in Europe. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST I4. 

Geneva, dinner, $0 60 

Pourboire driver to Mont Blanc, . . 30 

Supper, 25 

Lodging, I 00 

$2 15 
THE RHONE. 

The beautiful, the clear, pure, cold, blue river 
Rhone floods on, swift and deep, through the 
middle of the city, without traffic or despoil- 
ment, a perpetual and sweet fountain of refresh- 
ment and health. It is the outlet of Lake Geneva, 
whose waters in the summer are from the snow 
and ice of the Alps. The Rhone is beautifully 
walled all along with the granite and marble cop- 



I40 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

ings of private villa grounds ; shade-trees, seats, 
parks, statues, music-stands, elegant hotels, and 
handsome streets border it, and upon its limpid 
bosom float graceful yachts and skiffs. Oh ! how 
I wanted to lave in it on that day of August ! It 
is even poetically pure. Where the streets of the 
city stop, the suburban villas begin, and their 
plots of grass, their graveled walks and flower- 
beds extend to the water's edge, which is defined 
by neat coping ; there is no tide, no-mud, no strand. 
Up to the coping of these villa grounds, arbored 
and ornamented with trees and summer-houses, 
extends the fresh, soft, cold water, the highest in 
hottest summer. The best sites for villas are on 
the west and north side, having the shade in the 
afternoon, and a view of the Alps and Mont 
Blanc to the south. The lake-shore has its slopes 
in view. The city is quiet, respectable, and in- 
dustrious. There is no '' loaferism," squalor, nor 
mendicancy. What the winters are I can not say, 
but the summers are delightful. Through the 
hotels during all the night and day float breezes 
from the snow-peaks in sight. 

But the diligence (dillezhonce) is ready for Mont 
Blanc. There can be no more inspiriting sounds 
than the crack of the driver's whip and voices of 
a good company as we set out in anticipation for 
this romantic ride and sublime object. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 141 

THE ROUTE 

from Geneva to Mont Blanc is fifty miles, over a 
splendid road, macadamized and graded, so that 
we go on a trot all the way, arriving at night at 
the foot of the mountain by an easy and beautiful 
drive of about ten hours. There are every day 
from twenty-five to one hundred tourists leaving 
Geneva for the mountain, and, with them, all is 
usually merry. Soon after leaving, we enter 
among the mountains, and as we drive along a 
verdant valley dotted with the small cottages of 
the Savoyards, we approach scenes increasing in 
weirdness and novelty. We drive between ranges 
of mountains, their far-upreaching peaks making 
familiar with heaven itself. Cascades melting 
from snow and ice appear on all sides, leaping and 
dashing down hundreds of feet in snowy spray, 
their rifts seeming to float slowly downward like 
the wafting of bridal vails. With these cloud- 
piercing, shaggy mountain-rocks, snow-covered, 
we see verdure and bloom below. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 1 5. 

Lodging and breakfast at Mont Blanc, . $1 25 

Dinner, 60 

Chambermaid, 10 

Stationery, .20 

(No expenses up the glacier.) 

$2 15 



142 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

THE SAVOYARDS 

climb and plant wherever the chamois can go. 
Their cottages dot the steep slope far up, and 
serve well to aid our eyes in calculating the im- 
mensity of the height above. The slope is so steep 
that they crib and terrace their soil to prevent its 
being washed below. We see houses away up, as- 
cended by the angle of forty-five degrees, and we 
wonder what can the family want to go up there 
for ; but being up there, we wonder again what on 
earth can they ever want to come down for. Oc- 
casionally we get a glimpse of the white, clear-cut, 
jagged forms of Mont Blanc's peaks, apparently 
five or six miles away; but after riding twelve and 
then twenty miles, they appear no nearer. 

It seems as though we were climbing the stair- 
case of natural wonders. We are coming among 
still higher mountains, and more jagged and bald 
and 

HEAVEN-PIERCING PEAKS. 

No snow nor ice yet visible from the road. How 
can Mont Blanc be higher than these ? , The road 
is dusty, and, there being no wind, the summer's 
sun — August 14th — blazes upon our heads as un- 
comfortably as on Broadway, New- York. Here 
are gardens, vineyards, and orchards. In five 
minutes more, and there in the distance is Mont 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 143 

Blanc in his white majesty, his immense fields of 
whitest, purest snow clearly defined against the 
blue sky, part of his form masked by the spur of 
a verdant mountain nearer us with vineyards and 
fields, and the highest of his peaks caressed and 
vailed in mystery by clouds. At first, we are sur- 
prised to see that he monopolizes all the snow, 
the other mountains and ridges around, apparently 
as high, having none ; but there he stands, like 
the huge frosted 

BRIDAL CAKE OF EARTH, 

presented to heaven. There, within cannon-ball 
reach, is eternal snow, and here the verdure of 
summer. There, perchance, are adventurers 
freezing to death ; here we are sheltering our- 
selves with parasols from the summer sun. But 
we ride on and on for miles ; the gorge becomes 
narrower, the dashing river Arve nearer ; we 
begin the ascent toward Chamounix valley, along 
the side of one of these cliffs, on a macadamized 
road, walled on the precipice side, and built under 
the direction of 

NAPOLEON III. 

In some places, he had to slice a cliff down one 
hundred and fifty feet, to get a horizontal ledge 
wide enough for two vehicles. Now the wind 



144 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

begins to feel snowy, and we want blankets and 
overcoats. Suddenly the guide points out to us 
the first glacier — De Bosson. What, may it not be 
imagined, are the feelings now of an American 
tourist who has read of these same glaciers from 
the geography at the school-desk, away back in 
childhood ? The glacier is a mass of purest 
ice and whitest snow, crowded down the ravines 
by the weight of the greater masses away up 
among the clouds, further than we can see. 
Along up the mountain, past the lower end of 
this mass of ice, still appear verdant, cultivated 
fields and pastures. This ice and snow, in its slow 
downward course, has plowed the ravine out 
deeper, and pushed a huge hill of gravel and 
rock and trees down before it, as an eel would 
nose his way into mud. The lower end keeps 
melting away by the heat of the valley, and the 
mountain-top keeps on forming more and pushing 
it down. As I am writing now in the H6tel des 
Alpes, I can hear the roar of many torrents and 
cascades of this pure cold water from the melting 
snows. We are now at the foot of Mont Blanc, 
in the 

VILLAGE OF CHAMOUNIX, 

in a little valley entirely surrounded by these 
cloud-wreathed walls. To-morrow, we will go 
over some of the glaciers — not ascend Mont Blanc, 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 45 

for that is a two days' labor, and costs fifty dol- 
lars for the necessary guides and appliances. That 
feat is rarely performed, and Avhen done is record- 
ed and heralded the world over. In this little 
village of Chamounix (Shamoonee) are a half 
dozen 

STYLISH HOTELS, 

and I, in passing around to all of them, in search 
of a young Englishman with whom a mutual 
promise had been made in Geneva to share 
guide and mule across to the head of Lake 
Geneva, have looked into a half dozen first- 
class dining-halls, brilliantly lighted with gas, 
and seen each of them full of superior company 
from all parts of the world, with wines and deli- 
cacies of first-class hotels, and all chattering hap- 
pily in anticipation of the scenes of the morrow, 
or of feats performed the day past. J suppose 
three hundred guests are in the village to-night. 
I might as well note that the Alps here and Mont 
Blanc are not in Switzerland, but in France. 
Geneva stands like a speck almost alone, and sur- 
rounded in French territory, at the foot of the 
lake, something like a knob on the end of a " crit- 
ter's " horn. There are a few 

AMERICAN LADIES 

here, alone and in pairs. They ought to " pair " 
another way. They are too shy. They ought to 



146 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

know there are many lone American and English 
gentlemen who would be only too glad of their 
company, who would give them the benefit of 
their practical advice, protect them from extor- 
tion, and lend occasionally a strong arm. 

THE MER DE GLACE. 

The tour up Mont Blanc, across the great gla- 
cier of this name, and down along the other side of 
the glacier to the road in the valley, took just five 
hours. I did it without guide, v/ithout company, 
and without a staff other than an umbrella. A 
mule and guide cost about four dollars. Men 
don't need mules, and one guide will do for a 
large party. The track all the way is well worn 
and can be easily followed. I should think the 
zigzag track up the mountain to the point avail- 
able for crossing the glacier is about four miles 
long. It is above the pines and beyond vegeta- 
tion, where the cones of the mountain are wholly 
rock. This glacier is about eight or ten miles 
long, and averages about a quarter of a mile wide 
and one hundred feet deep of solid ice. It has 
plowed a mighty furrow from one to two hun- 
dred feet deep, and has rolled the debris of the 
furrow over from fifty to one hundred feet up on 
each side, carrying immense bowlders and broken 
pieces of granite that Aveigh thousands of tons. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. I47 

No soil or earth appears ; all is broken quartz or 
granite. The sides of this gulf, or huge furrow, 
are a mass of bowlders tumbled in wild confusion. 
Some of them have rolled back down upon the 
surface of the glacier, and are borne slowly along 
on its bosom, and in years hence will be finally 
pitched over at the bottom end, where huge hills 
of them now are, the ice that bore them thither, 
for ages, having melted. 

THE MOVING THEORY 

of the glacier is proved by these results. In its 
course doAvn, it is over an uneven bed, and hence 
breaks up crosswise into combs or sections, leav- 
ing deep fissures or ice-cracks tapering down 
wedge-like. One can see down some of them 
fifty feet. If a man should fall into one, he would 
wedge in so tightly that no forceps could pull 
him out. In this weather, the ice is melting and 
soft on the surface ; but one sees bowlders of hun- 
dreds of tons on the ice, and thus knows that by 
care and by examining the route there is no 
danger ; for in these fissures the clear, 

SOLID GREEN WALLS 

can be seen. I was enabled to find my way across 
by the dirt and gravel left on the surface from the 
feet of voyagers, and occasionally by ice-steps 



148 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

that are daily cut by the system of public guides 
whom the hotels employ. Under this great gla- 
cier, and from its melting, the river Arve takes 
its source, and breaks out suddenly from a grotto 
at its foot. The descent down the bank of this 
great furrow, between the bowlders and up the 
opposite bank, is really more dangerous than cross- 
ing the ice, as there is constant change and roll 
and tumble ; and this seems likely to occur at any 
time, and while people are upon it. . In such a case, 
only a miracle could save one. Ladies crossed 
to-day, and they seemed to do it with more facility 
and courage than the men. Crossing this glacier 
with care, there is little or no hazard ; but climb- 
ing the sides of the gulf, no foresight can prevent 
the danger of this indescribable mass of loose 
rocks from moving. 

Old Blanc mostly keeps his head vailed in 
cloud, as though too majestic for familiar gaze ; 
and when he is for a moment revealed, his fea- 
tures, with the sunlight upon them, seem almost 
to smile. I must be pardoned for repeating an 
expression, because it is the only one that imparts 
the appearance of this sublime peak — it is heaven- 
piercing. At just sunset, while the guests, a hun- 
dred of them, were at dinner, the heavens cleared 
at once, and the line of ridge stood out gilded in 
the halo of setting sun-rays. The day had been 
cloudy, and many of the guests were disappointed. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. I49 

I fortunately discovered the momentary scene, 
and told the landlord it was too bad for them to 
miss this opportunity. He announced it, and the 
tables were nearly thrown over in the pell-mell 
rush of a hundred people out upon the balconies 
and terraces, all enraptured, as evinced by their 
expressions. First, we see a mountain of green, 
above that a mountain of pure crusted white, and 
above that the deep blue vault of heaven, the 
stars just twinkling over the ridge like diamond- 
settings in this crown of earth. 

On returning, all pronounce this the grandest 
sight of a lifetime. But w^hile inanimate nature 
here is grand, the human nature is made up of ex- 
tortionate, begging peasantry, with more hideous 
deformities of body and weakness of mind than in 
the same number of people elsewhere. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 16. 

Lodging and breakfast, . . . . $0 80 
Supper at Geneva, 50 

$1 30 5 



CHAPTER XIII. 

MONT CENIS TUNNEL. 

Back to Geneva, around through French ter- 
ritory again, we approach another important 
object of visit — Mont Cenis (Cen^^) Tunnel, cut 
seven miles through the solid rock, from the 
French side through the Alps to the Italian side. 
The grade approaching the tunnel is not very 
steep, and there is nothing about the approach 
to or mouth of the tunnel to indicate its impor- 
tance as a great piece of engineering. For four 
or five miles, we can look through the tunnel to- 
ward the Italian entrance, which, while we are 
riding in pitch darkness, looks at first like the 
white flame of a lamp, and gradually enlarges as 
we approach. Coming from Switzerland into 
France, and from France into Italy, all the pas- 
sengers get out of the train and file through the 
passport and customs departments. I hand my 
passport ; it is simply looked at, and the single 
remark is made, ''Americainf '' Out/' and to my 
valise, '^ Cigars ? " '^ Non.'" ^^ Passe,':;, monsieur.'' 



FXONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 151 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 1 7. 

Lodging, .... ... $0 80 

Breakfast, 40 

Soup €71 route through Mont Cenis Tunnel 

to Turin, . . . . <, . 20 



%i 40 



RECAPITULATION. 



It has been seen that France, includmg Geneva 
and Mont Blanc, has been enjoyed, embracing 
twa weeks, for $48.49 currency, including fare 
from London to Geneva. 



ITALY. 

And now we get into Italian scenery. I do not 
concur with Byron's poetic description of Italy, 
where he uses the words, 

"Thou art the garden of the world, the home 
Of all Art yields and Nature can decree ; 
Even in thy desert, what is like to thee ? 
Thy very weeds are beautiful, thy waste 
More rich than other climes' fertility." 

Italy looks old, ragged, dried-up, and poor. 
Her towns average about two thousand years of 
age, and most of them cluster where- they were 
started, upon some cliff or the spur of a mountain, 
orfginally selected for defense. This is not true 
of the large cities. Entering them, the American 



152 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

feels really that he is in the land of art. The 
railroad depots are like palaces in exterior ap- 
pearance, with imposing colonnades, arches, 
reception-rooms, and gardens. Every thing- is 
strange and unique. Art and luxury appear 
everywhere, yet without any great exhibition of 
wealth. 

Ease, leisure, and pleasure are the bent of the 
people ; and there is an absence of the appear- 
ance of what is generally called '^business" in 
thrifty cities of England and America. There is 
a sprightly elegance tripping along the street, 
and the gay and well-dressed of both sexes are 
moving along the same as in Broadway ; but also 
may be seen idle, sun-tanned, half-clothed lazza- 
roni, resembling our organ-grinders, lying upon 
the sidewalks, basking in the sun ; and the scene 
of small carts full of garden-truck drawn by 
small asses, is a familiar one in all the Italian 
cities. These general remarks apply to Turin, 
Florence, Rome, and Naples, which we visited. 
In each of these cities, there are, of course, won- 
derful galleries of pictures and statuary — the 
accumulation of many centuries ; and the ar- 
chitecture is all fanc}^ Every thing is stone, 
marble, and concrete — the floors of the hotel 
bedrooms in every story are polished concrete 
and mosaic. Throughout 'Italy there are no evi- 
dences of manufacturing industry, and very little 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 53 

of commerce. Agriculture is very untoward, 
sufficing only for the wants of the people, which 
are few ; the laborers lie about the fields, and 
almost all Italy seems to be taking a recumbent 
position, and giving a national adoption to the 
dolce far niente. 

Victor Emmanuel's officers swarm in every 
city with their bright sabres and neat uniforms. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 1 8. 

Baedeker's Italian guide-books, . . $1 60 
Keeper House of Deputies, .... 20 
Fruit, 5 c. ; omnibus, 5 c. ; bath, 60 C;, . 70 

Board and lodging, one day, . . . 2 20 

Ice at dinner, 5 

Omnibuses, ....... 20 



$4 95 



TURIN, 



revealed by daylight, awakens one to an ii^medi- 
ate realization that he is in Italy. In our break- 
fast-hall, stucco, fresco, painting, gilding, and 
upholstering — all in a florid and abundant style 
— the fountain in the court-yard, the arrangement 
of the black lace vail over the black hair and 
down the neck and shoulders of the dark-eyed 
fruit-girl, the view of high buildings, with spa- 
cious and arched promenades, carried even over 
the street-crossings, and sheltering from sunburn 
or storm — all indicate that the Italian mind loves 



154 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

beauty ; and although we are in this frontier and 
inland town, one can see that Italy has been the 
school of art for the world. 



THE STREET SCENES 

are interesting. There is a beauty of form and 
feature everywhere, and the carriage of the wo- 
men is grand and graceful. The young men are 
fashionable, bright, and intelligent, and in respect 
to the persomtel of the streets, it looks to me very 
American-like. I looked into the old Hall of De- 
puties, a small amphitheatre, now unused. The 
guide showed me Count Cavour's seat, at the 
top row next an aisle, and how Cavour used to 
stand impatiently in the aisle, lean his left arm 
on the back of his seat, and impatiently shake 
his watch-chain with his right hand during the de- 
bate. He also showed his chair as premier at the 
secretary's table, where he used to sit, cross-leg- 
ged, shaking his watch-chain. The guide seem- 
ed to feel the place was sacred, for he bade me sit 
there, and cross my legs and lay my arm where 
the count did. I was shown the rooms of Victor 
Emmanuel's mother. They are all gold, plate 
mirrors in the panels, and the ceilings artistically 
pictured. The new Hall of the Deputies, now 
abandoned for the seat of government at Rome, 
is of remarkable richness and height. It must" 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. I 55 

have been a difficult hall for speaking, as a sharp 
clap of the hands would echo or reverberate for a 
minute and a half, making about 150 distinct 
repetitions in a beautiful and wonderful diminu- 
endo. 

A HANDY MOTIVE-POWER. 

In Turin, I saw a wood-sawj-er stop at a hydrant, 
attach a small machine, and by the force of the 
hydrant- water, saw a pile of wood. No fire-engines 
are needed there. The thought occurred. Why 
would not this be economy in all cities ? Where 
there is an expensive water department, why not 
have sufficient ''head" on, by a water-tower, to 
give each house its fire-plug, the same as it now 
has its street-washer ? 

EXPENSES, AUGUST I9, 

Florence — Cathedral and tower, . . . $0 20 

Pitti Palace, 20 

• Board and lodging, one day, . . , 2 00 

Cab, 40 c. ; lunch, 30 c. ; medicine, 20 c, . 90 

Laundry, 80 

Extra lunch, 45 



^4-55 
THE STREET CICERONES 

are a plague, and should be suppressed by police 
surveillance. They know a stranger immediately, 
obtrude upon him with their services, dog him 
to his extreme annoyance for blocks, and meet 



156 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

him a second and third time. The employ- 
ment of them is seldom needed, and when used 
they are an unfailing swindle and disgust. 

FLORENCE. 

The night of August i8th, 1874, was so cold eri 
7'oute from Turin to Florence that the car-windows 
were closed and overcoats necessary. 

Straight to the New- York Hotel, a brush-up 
and a wash-up — for railroading in Italy is very 
dusty — and some rest and refreshment, then look- 
ing over the guide-book and a map of the city, 
and one is ready to do Florence — justly entitled 
''la bellay For brevity, let us quote the terse 
opening of Baedeker's Italy" on the article '' Flo- 
rence :" 

'' Formerly the capital of the Grand Duchy of 
Tuscany, and from 1864 to 1870 the capital of 
Italy, it ranks with Rome, Naples, and Venice as 
one of the most attractive towns in Italy. While 
in ancient times, Rome was the great centre of 
Italian development, Florence has, since the mid- 
dle ages, superseded it as the focus of intellectual 
life. The modern Italian language and literature 
have emanated chiefly from Florence, and the fine 
arts also attained the zenith of their glory here. 
An amazing profusion of treasures of art, such as 
no other locality possesses within so narrow 



FXONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. I 57 

limits, reminiscences of a history that has influ- 
enced the whole of Europe, perpetuated by nu- 
merous and imposing monuments, and, finally, 
the delightful environs of the city, combine to 
render Florence one of the most attractive places 
in the world." 

NOW 

the city is beautiful in its situation, its pavement, 
and architecture. Through the streets coursed 
a delightful breeze to-day, and on the shady side 
I found the walk as comfortable as anywhere else, 
on the same date, as regards climate. I lost no 
time in following the direction of my guide-book, 
without a personal guide or cicerone^ to the various 
places of interest, and have to-day visited the 
Piazza delta Signoria^ the Palazzo Vecchio — and all 
the palaces of art in its vicinity — also the Cathe- 
dral Duomo, the National Museum, and Palazzo 
Pitti. In these places are the artistic works of 
every school, every age, and every master, and 
thousands of originals, some of which have been 
copied indefinitely, and thus represented all round 
the world. The town is old, and seems to run to 
art. Art is everywhere ; the common buildings 
are erected with unique design ; nothing that man 
can lay his hand to has he done as it is done in 
America and England ; stores and shops of jewel- 
ry, pictures, and statuary outnumber all other 



158 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

trades, so that the wonder' is where all their cus- 
tomers are. Surely to maintain or encourage this 
immense trade in these articles, all the world 
must come here, and yet the hotels in this month 
are as deserted as the palaces. Onl}^ seven per- 
sons assembled at the table (TJiote of the " New- 
York" to-day, a hotel that accommodates, sump- 
tuously, 300. Fruit is abundant and twice as 
cheap as in America. I am agreeably disappoint- 
ed in the Italians, thus far, as to the one-price 
charge, and fair charges ; also with the general 
spirit of the people. They are not so fuss}^ as the 
French, nor have I seen or been annoyed by their 
beggars, so much spoken of. In fact, the cicerones 
and cabmen and hotel drummers are less persis- 
tent in Florence than anywhere I have been. 

THE PIAZZA BELLA SIGNORIA 

is a small open space in the heart of the city — a 
piazza — paved all over, which has been for hun- 
dreds of 3^ears the place of the most momentous 
incidents in Italian history. Here, Savonarola was 
burned at the stake nearly 300 years ago. All 
around it are public edifices as old as 700 years, 
and there are at least 40 statues in view. Here is 
the great Galleria degli Uffizzi, embracing so many 
treasures of art. Here, copying is carried on to 
a great extent by artists from all parts of the 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. I 59 

world. Here are originals by Michael Angelo, 
Vacca, Cellini, Bologna, and, in fact, all leading 
artists. Here are grouped the distinct schools, 
such as the Flemish, Tuscan, Venetian, Dutch, 
German, and French. But it would be idle to at- 
tempt description of these numerous galleries. 

THE PALAZZO PITTI 

is a rough structure outside, but royal within. It 
is richer than the English or French royal palaces. 
When Victor Emmanuel is in Florence, he lodges 
in this palace. Every thing is in royal readiness. 
There is furniture of inlaid wood or mineral, form- 
ing fine and minute faces or landscapes, the natu- 
ral color of the wood or mineral giving the shad- 
ings. Some of the spacious floors are one vast 
sheet of polished concrete. Back of the palace is 
an ancient out-door amphitheatre of granite, ca- 
pable of seating 2000 persons, made 200 years 
ago for the Court. It is moss and ivy covered 
now. Rising above that is a delightful grove and 
garden. This palace, costing millions, is also un- 
used. I suppose there are thirty palaces in Eu- 
rope, costing over two hundred millions of dol- 
lars, with garnishment, unused except for the 
people to marvel at, and to show them how grand 
it is to support royalty, any one of the many thou- 
sand articles in each of w^hich — door, mirror, 



l6o ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

chair, table, vase, picture, chandelier, etc. — would 
buy a homestead. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 20. 

Rome — One fourth expense of guide and 
carriage, in a party of four (having 
visited Roman Forum, Colosseum, 
Trajan Forum and Column, Prison St. 
Paul, baths of Titus, Caracalla, and 
Vespasian, ancient sewers, Catacombs, 
tombs of the Scipios, Campagna and . . 

Aqueduct, Churches, and Quirinal 
Palace), ... . . $2 oo 

Board, 2 20 

$4. 20 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ROME. 

Long before we arrived here, we saw from the 
passes of the Apennines the towering dome of 
St. Peter's. We entered the Eternal City just at 
dusk, and had a foretaste of the ruins of ancient 
Rome. But, alas! classic sentiments are dis- 
pelled by brick-yards, railroad-switches, clothes- 
lines, tan-yards, hacks and hack-drivers, modern 
brick tenements, and Victor Emmanuel's sol- 
diers, all mixed up with the ruins of the great 
baths of Diocletian, the Temple of Minerva, 
the wall of Servius Tullius, and a fragment of 
the Etruscan walls. Being left at the hotel on 
Via Condotti, we hastily wash and brush up, en- 
gage our guide and carriage for the next day, 
and walk out to the famous main street of Rome 
— the Corso. This is a narrow, paved street, and 
the mass of the people saunter along from curb to 
curb — the sidewalk being only three feet wide. 
In the morning, our party of four, with guide and 
driver, go rapidly around visiting the various 



l62 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

ruins. We ride out on the Appian Way, see the 
ancient Aqueduct, go into the Colosseum, inspect 
the process of excavation, descend into the Cata- 
combs and the tombs of the Scipios — where we 
see the results of the cremation of the human 
body in the cinders of each member of the family, 
in urns deposited in niches in the solid rock — 
descend also into the ancient Trajan Forum, 
stand upon the pavement trod by the Caesars, 
and see all round the evidences of Vandal-like de- 
struction of the Imperial City. We also visit 
many of the churches, ancient and mediaeval, 
there being scarcely any modern ones. Aside 
from the ruins of ancient Rome and the mediaeval 
churches, there is nothing in or about it of an in- 
teresting nature in architecture or scenery. There 
are about four hundred and eighty churches in 
the city, and upon every one of them, even the 
least in significance, is lavished all the cumulative 
art that zeal and wealth can afford. These churches 
would require a whole chapter to give only a 
general description of them. Our guide, who was 
a thorough artist, and was enthusiastic and un- 
flagging in his interest v/hile with us, often passed 
his hand up and down pillars and paneling and 
niches and casings and statuary and paintings 
and mosaic, saying, ''All reech — no sham." There 
was St. Paul's Church, which seemed to be out- 
side of the city limits, and said to be on the site 



ECONO^IICAT. EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 63 

of the martyrdom, too magnificent for me to de- 
scribe. It is constantly open, yet seldom used 
on account of its inaccessibility. There is one 
church, the Maria in Trastevere, no two of the pil- 
lars of which surrounding the nave are alike, 
having been exhumed from ruins unknown. There 
is one granite monolith in that row of pillars, hard 
as flint and polished like glass, eight feet in 
diameter and ninety-nine feet tall. The base of 
it is run into the ground because it is longer than 
the other pillars, and a false base and pedestal is 
forrried at the floor. There is no knowledge of 
the structure to which this pillar belonged, nor of 
the machinery or immense labor it took to make 
it. I believe it is the largest monolith in the 
world ever turned out by the hand of man. 

The next day is devoted entirely to St. Peter's, 
and this, like our Niagara Falls, can only be re- 
alized by a metrical knowledge of its proportions, 
for the eye can not take in its size. First, there 
are two vast semicircular colonnades, each of 
four rows of monstrous pillars five feet in diameter, 
making about four hundred pillars in all, and em- 
bracing many acres. Then there is the body of the 
church. While there, in writing to my friends, I 
made the following comparisons, believing them 
to be exaggerations, but only to bring their minds 
up to a comparative idea of its vastness. I said 
that " I had now climbed a stairway of artistic 



164 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

and architectural wonders ; that our Trinity 
Church, Brooklyn, would stand inside of St. Paul's, 
London ; and that St. Paul's dome, ball, and cross 
would stand inside the dome of St. Peter's." 
When I returned to Brooklyn, and the old dimi- 
nution of soul returned to me again, I was a little 
ashamed at the lie I had told, and I compared 
the figures ; but I found that not only would our 
Trinity Church stand inside of St. Paul's, and St. 
Paul's inside of St. Peter's, but our post-office 
building might still be placed on top of both of 
them, and then all three stand inside of St. Peter's. 
These proportions seem incredible, but they are 
true, as can be shown by these figures : Trinity 
Church is 275 feet high to top of cross. St. Paul's, 
from floor to top ofdome inside, is 271 feet 6 inches, 
being 4^ feet less than Trinity ; but by taking out the 
floor of the lantern on top of the dome, the height 
would equal Trinity. St. Paul's outside to top of 
cross is 360 feet 4 inches. Our post-office building 
is about 70 feet high, which, put on top of St. 
Paul's, would just make the height of St. Peter's 
dome. inside — ^429 feet. Inside of St. Peter's there 
is no painting, the pictures are in mosaic that 
will never fade or be destroyed, except by fire. 
Within this dome are pictures of the evangelists, 
and so great are the dimensions that the pen held 
by St. Mark appears to be about 13 inches long, as 
generally estimated by visitors, while in reality it 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 65 

is 7 feet long. This mosaic-picturing illustrates 
the richness of these churches. Our guide intro- 
duced us to the studio of his brother, who was a 
mosaic artist. Mosaic is glass fused with metal 
to obtain the various colors, and drawn out into 
splinters or spindles of every variety of tint, like 
crochet material. These bits are broken off and 
inserted into a bed of cement as the shading is re- 
quired by the pattern. It will be seen from this 
that time has no effect upon the brightness of the 
coloring. The pictures, statuary, and ornamenta- 
tion in St. Peter's, the Vatican, and the Quirinal 
can not, of course, be here described ; and as to 
the ruins, the Archaeological Commissions are 
prosecuting their exhumations and preserving 
what they find. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 21. 

One fourth expense of guide, carriage, 
and admission fees (visiting St. Peter's, 
Vatican, and churches), . . . $2 20 

Board, 2 20 

U 40 
We visited Palatine Hill, containing the ruins 
of the palaces of the Csesars and Nero, and the 
baths of Caracalla and Vespasian. Their splendor 
and magnificence as now indicated by their im- 
mense walls, broad mosaic floors, and the mosaic 
bottoms of the bathinsr-basins, wherein fifteen hun- 



l66 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

dred people could bathe, is not easily within our 
conception ; but the most striking- point to me Avas 
the vindictiveness with which those Vandals, in 
their various sackings of Rome, had carried on the 
work of destruction. Not only did they cast down, 
but they broke and mashed every thing of a fine na- 
ture, such as the statuary and the polished marble 
facings of walls. Ancient Rome had tens of thou- 
sands of its citizens illustrated in marble and bronze, 
and these are now exhumed in all their variety 
of feature and character, broken and earth-stained. 
But we must quit Rome and hurry on. We were 
there five days, and we saw Americans who had 
been residents for two years, and who said their 
astonishment was increasing day by day. We 
were told not to go to Rome during the hot 
weather, but we found blankets comfortable every 
night, and, with care, that the health and spirits 
were as good as anywhere. We kept in-doors at 
night, and when in the hot days we descended 
into cool crypts, catacombs, or tombs, we were 
prepared Avith shawls and stimuli. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 22. 

Private galleries and studios, one-fourth 

expense of guide, . , . . $i oo 
Board, 2 20 

$3 20 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 6/ 

But Space limits us. Here is Murray's guide- 
book of the city, 480 pages octavo, only historical 
and statistical, and in most compressed style. As 
a modern cit}^, Rome would not be noticed ; but 
mingled with the modern life here are the impos- 
ing ruins of ancient Rome that can not be buried 
nor forgotten ; and also here are the towering 
monuments of the mediaeval ages. Thus the 
mingling of contrasts is almost ridiculous. For 
the ancient Roman, you see the dandies and 
organ-grinders ; for Csesar, you have Victor Em- 
manuel, who knows and cares for nothing (as 
his people sslj) but his pleasures ; for the Colos- 
seum, the palaces of Titus, of Vespasian, and the 
baths of Caracalla, we have an uncomfortably 
close, blocky, bare style of houses. Externally, 
there is nothing attractive about Rome ; rather, 
it is repulsive. Its streets are narrow, and there 
is no redeeming domiciliary architecture, from 
centre to circumference, until the distant villas 
are reached. No flowers, grass, nor grounds exist 
about any house. Take away the structures of 
the mighty Roman Catholic Church and the ruins, 
of the past, and Rome is left a third-rate city. 
Take away the patronage of the outside world in 
art-buying and wonder-seeking, and the people 
would be in a strait to get their bread and wine. 
Rome has 



l68 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



NO BRANCH OF INDUSTRY 

for the supply of the rest of the world, nor of its 
own country, except in the arts. It is the centre 
of nothing but of an ecclesiastical society. Here 
is nothing that is new, to indicate a vigorous peo- 
ple or a powerful State. Here are no glories but 
of the past. To be sure, it should be said'that a 
few modern houses of beauty and comfortable 
style, with open spaces surrounding, are now in 
course of erection ; and this evidence of life has 
sprung up since the advent of the Italian govern- 
ment. " See Naples and die" — see the ruins of 
Rome and depart. 

And yet, how can an impression of them be 
brought to the mind of one who has not beheld 
them ? Remember, Rome was once imperial ; that 
imperial Rome is still imperial in its ruins. What 
breadth and strength of genius to conceive, and 
what energy and facilities to execute ! The 
broken arches are many, vast, towering; the 
walls, thick and strong, broken and ivy-cover- 
ed, line away to grand extents, inclosing piles of 
destruction whose now unearthed fragments in- 
dicate their splendors. Huge monoliths are 
thrown down and broken as though by man's 
rage, but no one can trace the different epochs of 
spoliation in the results now laid bare. Myriads 
of statues, tablets of laws and personal records, 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 69 

and articles of public and private taste are ex- 
humed, earth-stained, that show a vigor of char- 
acter and of resources not displayed in any age 
since. None of the architectural or artistic works 
of any country can now be pointed out that can 
not here find their equal. 

Such is a superficial impression. 

Our little party undertook to have 

A MOONLIGHT VIEW 

of the Colosseum, and were so favored. In this 
way, the impression is much grander. In the 
day-time, the vision contracts the dimensions of all 
large objects as an opera-glass makes distances 
shorter. In the night-time, that effect did not seem 
to exist to such a degree. All was solitude about ; 
the moonlight streamed through the vast arches 
and windows, lighting the inside partly, and leav- 
ing other parts dark and gloomy. There was 
nothing to hinder, and we walked right in to the 
arena. Two Italian sentries were there, smoking 
their pipes, but said nothing to us. The lines of 
the structure stood out boldly against the blue 
sky. We sat upon a broken pillar and reflected. 
From there it was but a few steps to the Forum. 
In the same silence, and none to disturb, we de- 
scended to the ancient pavement, where had 
thronged the busy Romans and spoken the mighti- 
est of voices. There lay the fragments in abundance 



I/O ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

of what nearly two thousand years ago adorned 
the heart of the Roman empire. There we stood 
at the rostrum, and under the pillars of the temple 
of Saturn. When and why and how this mass of 
earth was sloped over this place to the depth, on 
an average, of twenty-five feet over its fallen pil- 
lars, but leaving parts of temples there protrud- 
ing, and how they all should be forgotten in a 
city of continuous history, is not clear ; but 
there was the grand fact before our eyes. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 23. 

Lunch, $1 00 

Omnibus, . 20 

$1 20 
THE EXCAVATIONS 

are continued by the private Archaeological Com- 
mission. Their labors are protected by the State, 
and at night sentried by government soldiers. 
Every scrap discovered is carefully preserved, 
placed, and recorded. 

The greater the mind and the more the learn- 
ing, the more will Rome be appreciated. Although 
it concentrates more modern art than any city 
in the world, j^et that bears slight proportion to 
the wonders of the past that tower up there with 
the hoary character of more than two thousand 
years, or that are exhumed day after day. A 
great mind is staggered and overwhelmed as he 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. I /I 

moves about Rome and sees these majestic out- 
croppings ; and the mind that is not great becomes 
fascinated and lost in study and contemplation as 
the subjects about him grow and grow and grow 
upon him. Standing by a bronzed and dirty Italian 
laborer of to-day, in a pit thirty feet below the 
level of the modern street, and seeing him clear- 
ing away the gravel and clay from some magni- 
ficent broken pillar, now dragging up some 
fragment of statuary, such as a beautiful female 
hand in marble, now some fragment in marble of 
the more muscular anatomy of man, and then 
some beautiful design of architectural decoration, 
the mind then totters and flits with puny realiza- 
tion back twenty centuries, and asks. What were 
the last human influences, before this, at this spot ? 
We look around us through the city and at 
the various fora, temples, churches, palaces, and 
streets being excavated. We see, even in mounds 
and by cart-loads, fragments of ancient statuary, 
whole statues by thousands, marble busts of Ro- 
man citizens by thousands, single monoliths pur- 
porting to be of some immense structure whose 
whereabout is not even conjectured ; then frown- 
ing everywhere — decaying grandeur mixed with 
the insignificant appearances of modern life — are 
basilicas, triumphal arches, military walls, col- 
umns, imperial palaces, public baths and foun- 
tains, and the Colosseum. 



172 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

Modern Rome is but the rubbish of mighty 
imperial Rome of the past. 

But we Avill recur to the question, and try to 
answer it, How imperial Rome came to be cov- 
ered up and forgotten? History records no 
earthquake swallowing up, and no flood nor con- 
tinuous submerging that would carry a deposit 
thither ; and the present witness of these excava- 
tions will see that they are cut right down 
through sand, gravel, clay, and bowlders from the 
surface of the present paved streets. 

Probably the explanation is that the forgetful- 
ness of these ancient objects is akin to the rage that 
destroyed them. Ancient combatants and icon- 
oclasts, foreign and internecine, threw them down, 
and mediaeval and modern people have covered 
them over. To express it in a simple way, anti- 
quities and ruins had become a drug in the Ro- 
man market. Even emperors and popes have 
regarded the great Colosseum and palaces as 
quarries from which to build private palaces. 

But within the past age, steam travel has 
brought all the world in adoration to the feet of 
her ancient mistress, and Roman respect for the 
sentiment of the world, as well as its profits, has 
arrested despoilment, and begun exhumation and 
preservation. 

In the time of the Emperor Vespasian, a.d. 69, 
the inhabitants numbered about two millions ; 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 73 

there were 19 public forums, each adorned by 
wealth and taste, 37 public gates, 19 aqueducts, 
1790 superior palaces, 7 public baths, 423 temples, 
36 triumphal arches, 10 basilicas, and 1352 foun- 
tains, great and small. No wonder, then, that dig- 
ging in the earth develops myriads of these proofs 
of the grandeur of the past, and that there is 
more under the present surface of Rome than there 
is over it. For a thousand years, Rome was sub- 
jected to the rage of war from without and with- 
in. In the first century, the city was burned 
under Nero. In 390, the Gauls took, sacked, and 
entirely destroyed the city, and this was after 
the most brilliant ages of Rome, including the 
Augustan and Aurelian. The Goths, in 410, de- 
stroyed most of the city ; and the Vandals in 455. 
Marble statues were then in the fights hurled 
upon the heads of the advancing Goths. In 
the eighth century, the ravages of the Saracens 
were destructive of much of its wealth. In suc- 
ceeding centuries, the city was repeatedly , cap- 
tured by the German armies, and then succeeded 
civic feuds, when the city was divided into sev- 
eral distinct fortified quarters, afterward de- 
stroyed. Thus Rome, being the subject of con- 
tests and misfortunes for a thousand years, was, 
in the fourteenth century, reduced to 20,000 peo- 
ple and the removal of the pontifical government. 
The modern visitor, on inspecting these ruins, at 



174 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

once gets the impression that not only did many 
of these besiegers cast down temples and statu- 
ary, but with rage and the spirit of extinction, 
they mashed and scattered every thing they could 
lay their hands upon ; the marble veneering or 
facing of the walls in palaces was obviously 
hammered, and almost pulverized ; and pieces of 
statuary are found, the complement or bodies of 
v/hich are untraceable. 

What wonder, then, that in temporary periods 
of discouragement, expediency, and indifference, 
these ruins were covered up to grade streets and 
form building-sites by later builders and munici- 
pal authorities. 

THE EXPENSES IN ROME 

have been $14.40. For this moderate sum, 
embracing all disbursements whatsoever, in- 
cluding hotel bills for nearly four days, have 
been brought to the writer's realization the 
principal objects of Rome, and as many of 
them as the time would permit of viewing, in- 
cluding its most imposing churches and chapels ; 
the Colosseum and excavations ; the Roman and 
Trajan forums, their excavations and fragments 
of art exhumed ; the ancient sewers; the ruins of 
the ancient imperial palaces of Palatine Hill ; the 
Catacombs, with their miles of labyrinths, their 



ECONO^IICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 75 

niches for the bones of the Christians ; the tombs 
of the Scipios in solid rock under the ground, 
with their mortuary cinerary urns, their little 
niches in the rock, a foot cube, containing- all that 
remains physically of a king or a princess ; the 
church of St. Peter's ; the Vatican and its galleries 
and library ; the Roman ancient roads ; the aque- 
ducts ; the ruins of ancient basilicas, temples, and 
arches, calling forth a veneration for their silent, 
hoary majesties ; the museums, containing trea- 
sures of ancient, medieval, and modern art; 
the modern villas, and many soul-absorbing 
wonders, too wearying in their multitude to 
enumerate, without describing them. 

One night's ride over the Cam.pagna, along the 
dark arches of the aqueduct, through the camp- 
fires of regimental bivouac, brings us to Naples. 

All along the base of Mount Vesuvius, and by 
the road that circles around the bay, approaching 
Pompeii, the houses are one story, of concrete^ 
stone, or brick, not excepting the rOofs. The un- 
covered city of Pompeii lies on rising ground, a few 
minutes' walk from the railroad-station. We ap- 
proached the entrance through a government 
house, and were admitted by paying one franc 
each to the government official, and were fur- 
nished for that a guide. The walls of the houses 
and the streets are as open to the air and light of 
day as any village. There is nothing subterra- 



176 ECONOMICAT- EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

nean nor damp. The old, well-worn pavements 
are swept clean, and not even any debris remains. 
Nothing of the houses remains but the first-story 
Avails. 

Where are the domestic utensils and furniture 
of a population? The museums at Pompeii and 
Naples do not contain a thousandth part of what 
was needed. Where are the bodies of those over- 
taken by the eruption ? Only eighty have been 
discovered, three or four of which are on exhibi- 
tion, the crust of scoriae scraped down sufficient 
to indicate the personal form and character of the 
bod}^ Most interesting of these are two figures, 
obviously a mother and young daughter, who had 
perished — suffocated — within each other's grasp. 
A ring on one of the fingers of the younger fe- 
male was visible through the thin crust of earthy 
material, and afcAV white finger-bones protruded, 
perhaps broken by the pick of the exhumers. 
There they lie upon a table for the nineteenth 
century to view and silently wonder what graphic 
and thrilling scenes they could portray of the first 
century, could they now resurrect. After a day 
spent in deepest interest in this " dead city," we 
return to Naples, view its evening pastimes, ride 
rpon the bay to the song of the Neapolitan oars- 
man, and the next morning go over, hard by, to 
Mount Vesuvius. 

Though Pompeii is stripped of almost every 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 7/ 

thing but pavements and the bare walls of the first 
stories,! discovered onethingthat brought vividly 
home to the mind the realization of past life there. 
It was plumbing, connected with the fountain (now 
dry) in the courtyard of the house of Sallust. 
In the centre of the marble mosaic courtyard is 
the fountain and its basin. The fountain is a minia- 
ture stairway of marble, about three feet high and 
ten inches broad. At the top stands a marble 
child with a pitcher, from which poured the water 
down over the stairway, making miniature cas- 
cades. Through the broken floor, I traced a few 
feet of lead pipe an inch and a half in diameter, 
and a cock exactly similar to those at present in 
use. The seam of the pipe wa.s clamped as our 
stove-pipes, instead of being made solid. 

There, in the solitude of that August af- 
ternoon, in the light and sky of the nineteenth 
century, panting for a refreshing bath, for a 
draught of pure, cool water, or to hear its flow, 
the mind traversed back eighteen hundred years 
to this spot, inquiring what workmen were here, 
what jokes or business intercourse passed, what 
personages of affluence or enlightenment reposed 
or rested here by this sparkling fountain, perhaps 
in intercourse with life in the adjacent alcoves 
and rooms that were open to the cool breezes 
of the Mediterranean, whose waves around the 
crescent bay could be heard there ; and then the 



1/8 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

mind realized the continuous spirit occupation of 
earth, and that eternity is to the All-seeing Eye but 
one instant. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 24. 

(Naples) Museum, $0 20 

Cab, 20 cr ; fare to Pompeii and return, 60 c, 80 

Boating on the bay, 20 

One half of cab, . .... 10 

Entrance to Pompeii, with guide, . . 40 

Board at Naples, . .... 2 20 

$3 90 



CHAPTER XV. 

MOUNT VESUVIUS. 

The old saying* of the Italians, " See Naples 
and die," was of course, like all old sayings, well 
founded. The surrounding of the Bay of Naples 
is an amphitheatre of beauties in nature and art. 
From the centre of the city, you face, westward, 
the blue bay, with its islands, castles, and forts ; 
to the left and south, near by, is Mount Vesuvius, 
always with its phenomenon of volcanic smoke ; to 
the right and north, you see villas, grottoes, vine- 
yards, and Virgil's tomb ; and back of the city, to 
the east, and above it on high crags, are castles, 
forts, and monasteries. The city itself, of white 
stone houses, its clean streets, its fountains and 
bright shops, is pleasant to look through. 

THE MOUNTAIN. 

Yesterday, there was an unusual amount of 
smoke from the crater. Vesuvius had been 
marked as the end of my journey, and I found it 



l8o ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST 

to be also the climax of natural and imposing 
wonders. On the 15th of August, I ate ice, 
crystal in purity and hardness, off the Mont 
Blanc glaciers, and ten days after — here on 
Mount Vesuvius — I have had my dinner cooked 
by the internal fires of the earth. The ascent 
was full of interest. I will give it in plain, brief 
detail. A young American lady, a Scotchman 
from Edinburgh, a Kentuckian, and myself formed 
a party for the ascent. To avoid the pestering 
offers of guides and drivers, with their tales of 
difficulty and danger, and their high prices, we 
arose in the morning at five, hired a cab for 20 
cents to reach the railroad, and from there, for 30 
cents each, and in half an hour reached Portrici, the 
station nearest the main ascending-place. Here, 
an early bird of a guide caught the worm. We 
had determined to ascend alone, without guide 
or horses. This guide followed us persistently 
but respectfully through the village, until oppo- 
site a small, dirty '' agency for mules and guides," 
where we were assured it was '' imposseeb" for 
the lady to ascend on foot. For four francs there 
was provided for her what she persistently called 
her " mule," but what was a much more gene- 
ric animal, very shabbily caparisoned. Now, 
these animals need much more positive stimu- 
lus to duty than that of a fragile young lady ; 
so a guide was hired for six francs ($1.20) to 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. l8l 

help animal and lady. And the guide earned 
his mone}^, for it was punch and '' ean " all the 
way up, and a sturdy hold upon the '' animal's" 
tail ail the way down. The guide was, however, 
in a copartnership of the supply business, for we 
had three lunches on the mountain at '' siege 
prices." Eggs cooked in the crater were half a 
franc each. He accused us three of drinking 
four bottles of wine and two of water ! That's 
what we paid for.- 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 25. 

Trip to Vesuvius, $0 30 

One third expenses of the guide, . . 40 

One third expenses of boy to carry lunch, 20 

Breakfast at Hermitage, .... 40 

Lunch at the crater, .... 60 

One third of carriage back to Naples, . 20 

Two extra eggs baked in the crater, . 20 

Board at Naples, 2 20 



$4 50 



THE ASCENT 



is commonly made by three halts or divisions of 
the route. Carriages to the Hermitage, then on 
the back of an animal to the base of the cone, 
then up the cone, forty-five degrees steep, on 
foot. We walked it, staff in hand, from the station 
to the lips of the crater, but we lost more than 
the price of animals in our shoe-leather. This 



1 82 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

crumbled scoria rasps like a steel file. On this 
first section we passed vineyards and the crop- 
pings of ancient lava streams, and then along 
and over the bare lava-floods of 1858 and 1872. 
Here, having toiled above the villages and 
shore of the Mediterranean, and above Naples, 
we turn around and find a grand view. All is 
desolate near us. The lava, having spread out, 
forms vast fields of black, bald sterility a hun- 
dred feet deep, as hard and heavy as cast-iron, 
and wrinkled and swirled and congealed into an 
infinitude of weird, fantastic shapes, nearest re- 
sembling fragments of the human form. Where 
this has been blasted for a roadway, or has been 
cracked as it passed over a bowlder, the bottom 
shows compact, dense granite, and on the top a 
blacker and quite as hard scum or scoria, show- 
ing that the lava was molten rock. There are 
square miles of this congealed flood, extending, 
but narrowing, right up to the lower side of the 
crater. Above the first third of the base there is 
no vegetation ; the mountain is but a mass of 
this lava in sheets, broken sections, and lumps, or 
it is pulverized into gravel. At the Hermitage, 
an unventilated, narrow-windowed, dirty stone 
house, we get a dose of a breakfast. The coffee, 
like picra, and without milk, was all that hero- 
ism could endure. Seeing some small, plum-like 
tomatoes in the garden, I called for them ; then 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 83 

called for vinegar — when the young lady told me 
to crumb the bread on the tomatoes in lieu of 
vinegar. Considering the number of visitors to 
Vesuvius, it is strange there are no facilities for 
rest and refreshment beyond the simplest and most 
nauseating kind. 

THE CONE. 

This is, geometrically, a perfect cone. The 
pulverized scorias and ashes falling from the 
spurt right back upon and around the aperture, 
have raised, to an immense height, a soft, loose, 
crumbling mass, the outside of which takes the 
natural angle of forty-five degrees, while the 
base or framework of the cone and the crater are 
large masses of scoriae and lava. The material of 
the surface resembles gravel in size of particles, 
but it is flinty scoriae. Under the tread this 
grinds and gives way, making the progress up- 
ward very toilsome. A steep ascent, which 
seemed three miles long, brings us to the 
edge or lips of the crater. The outward view 
here, of the Mediterranean and of Italy, is alone 
worth the toilsome, hot ascent. But all consi- 
derations are forgotten in the anticipation of 
looking down the crater. As we approach the top, 
we find a few inches under the surface to be much 
hotter than the surface itself. We rest a moment, 
and, while taking a drink of cool wine and water, 



1 84 FXONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

brought in a basket of leaves by the guide's 
" friend," we look at the great view around and 
below us, for we anticipate more engrossing won- 
ders at the top. We see a circuit of two hundred 
miles of sea and land. Cities and villages look 
like small patches of white cloth upon a green 
carpet. Pompeii could not be discovered from 
there without the aid of the guide. It seems 
that only a comparatively small rift of ashes was 
necessary to be carried thither by the wind to 
cover it, it being a mere speck in the landscape. 
As we stood there, the mind went back eighteen 
centuries, and asked, " Did God especially send 
that shower from this awful jet away where that 
little speck of Pompeii is ?" We knew from the 
frescoes now existing there — the eternal brand of 
her disgrace — that she deserved it. 

The lips of the crater were sharp and the throat 
was precipitous — a very chimney or funnel. Across 
the top, we judged the distance was a quarter of 
a mile, and we could see down, we supposed, three 
fourths of a mile, the throat narrowing downward, 
andjagged protuberances and convolutions cover- 
ing deeper distances, from below which sulphurous 
smoke was constantly rolling up. All around the 
inside of this throat, the material is in combus- 
tion, smoking and crackling, detaching and falling 
down. There is a constant sound like a sputtering 
and blubbering of molten metal, which seems 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 85 

distant and subterranean ; but after careful lis- 
tening and comparing-, we concluded the sound 
might be that of the cracking, by heat, of soft 
stone on the sides which we could see tumble 
smoking down. Perhaps there is no spot on 
earth where the curiosity and venturesomeness 
of man are so excited. The desire is to get into a 
position to see the volcanic fire in the interior of 
the earth. This is not permitted mortals. If the 
crumbling and insecure walls of the crater could 
be descended, the sulphurous smoke would de- 
stroy life. 

Over the lips,. we look down into the awfully 
deep, narrowing funnel, up which rolls sulphurous 
smoke that fills it entirely, except when the wind 
swirls in there and clears some of it away. It 
seems that our sight penetrates lower than the 
base of the mountain, down into the earth. It 
looks and smells and sounds, with its sputtering 
and gurgling, like the very throat of hell, which, 
like the throat of Vesuvius, no one can see — in 
this life. Sulphurous whiffs torment our lungs 
and drive us away. This would be a good place 
for some roaring Methodist to take a man by the 
nape of the neck and point him to. The whole 
inside of the crater is yellow with sulphur. The 
entire cone itself to the top is in a state of 
combustion. Smoke issues from every crevice. 
Eight feet from us, on the outside of the crater, 



1 80 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

our eggs were baked hard ; inside the crater, we 
thrust our staves, and they were charred like coal 
in one minute. We kept our feet from burning by 
moving, the winds from the Mediterranean keep- 
ing the surface cooled or reduced in heat. Miss 
Wing, of Glenn's Falls, a lithe young girl, who 
made the ascent on foot, occasionally assisted by 
the hand of the guide (a feat of courage, ambi- 
tion, and endurance that not one woman in a 
hundred accomplishes who undertakes it), had 
her linen dress scorched. We interest-ourselves 
in detaching fragments, and seeing them bound 
down, leap after leap, down, down, down, down, 
taking so long that it proves the distance is 
greater than the eye realizes. 

THE DESCENT 

down outside the cone is easier, and of some 
amusement. We take a direct route down the 
loose, soft gravel, sinking in half-way to the knees 
at each hop, and descending as harmlessly as 
though upon a heap of grain. Heated — almost in- 
flamed — dirty, and tired, we take a carriage to 
Naples, and see in the suburbs and narrow streets 
the characteristic scenes of women doing their 
work on the sidewalks, of cheap fruit and vege- 
table stalls, and of macaroni-making. We see 
every kind of fruit and vegetable known to Ame- 
rica, and yet almost none of it is on the hotel- 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 18/ 

tables, that make us sick with their eternal spiced 
meats, and with wine and concentrated pastry. 
Here, one of the ancient Roman emperors lost a 
son, who, among other boys, was practicing throw- 
ing plums into the air and catching them with 
the teeth, but missing one it lodged in his throat 
and choked him. We saw lads practicing the 
amusement part. 

VIRGIL'S TOMB. 

Next morning, we ride through the grotto of 
Posilippo, cut a mile through the hills. The en- 
trance is a narrow street of traffic. We pass a 
blacksmith-shop and a cooper-shop, with litter 
all about ; a rickety door is opened by a half- 
naked Italian ; there are stone steps, rock, and 
vines, and we clamber up toward the tomb of 
Virgil. Up around the rocks we continue, through 
a small vineyard, through dust, dirt, and brambles, 
around down again to a nook on the face of the 
rock, a hundred feet above the street, where we 
find a little, rough, stone shelter, itself obscured 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 26 AND 27. 

Return to Rome — Board (26th and part 

of 27th) $3 40 

Palace of the Cassars, cab and guide, , 40 

Carpet-bag for guide-books and souve- 
nirs, I 60 

Postage and stationery, . . . . . 40 

$5 80 



1 88 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

by untrained vines, bushes, and many weeds. 
There is no door ; the floor is littered ; goats make 
it a place of shelter. At one end is a small, thin 
marble slab with the words, 

"VIRGILIO MARONI," 

" Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc 
Parthenope, cecini pascua, rura, duces " 

And (in French), 

" Consecrated to the prince of Latin poets by 
EighhofF, Librarian to the Queen of the French." 

I thought that here, in sight of beautiful Naples, 
should be a suitable monument or tomb to Virgil 
— a worthy object of art and literary commemora- 
tion ; and that it was an opportunity for a college 
or alumni of America to do a handsome thing 
before the world and posterity, in obtaining per- 
mission to erect a structure worthy his fame. 
We each took a simple flower, and pressed it in 
our guide-books, as a relic or souvenir for our 
American friends. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 28. 

(Florence) breakfast, . . . . . $0 60 

Cab, . . 25 

Lunch, 20 

Gondola-omnibus at Venice, . . . 20 

$1 25 



CHAPTER XVL 

VENICE. 

Glad have I been to be hauled, as swiftly as the 
iron horse could go, from sterile Southern and 
Central Italy to the more agricultural Northern 
Italy. Approaching Venice, the eye is relieved 
and the mind refreshed by a more level, grassy, 
woody, and cultivated country, where the popu- 
lation is more disseminated over the soil, and less 
huddled upon bald hills, or perched and crouched 
upon craggy, forbidding peaks, as though eternal- 
ly watching somebody, than the people of Central 
and Southern Italy are. By dozens and dozens 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 29. 

Gondola, . $o 30 

Shoe-mending, 70 

Board, 2 20 

$3 20 

of tunnels^ long and short, hither and thither, we 
finally burrow through and clear the Apennines 



I go ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

and arrive at the north-eastern slope, where, for 
fifty miles from Venice, is a flat with many arms 
of the sea winding through it. Careful are we, on 
arriving at Venice in the night, in getting out of 
the cars, for fear of stepping into the water. The 
'' omnibus" at the marble steps of the depot is a 
gondola. Silently and pleasantly, as though in 
spirit-land, 'mid spectral palaces, we glide to the 
marble steps leading from the v/ater to a hall of 
pillars and a mosaic floor, where we are received 
into our hotel. 

The morning show^s that Venice is a scene of 
faded glory. 

In the days of her doges and new palaces, 
when her maritime character was greatest before 
the world, her fantastic architecture and fairy- 
like location on the sea gave her an unique splen- 
dor, the literature whereof is old and familiar to 
all. But Venice is now only a thing of the past, 
or, at most, a toy. It is the most trinkety place 
in the world. To appreciate her, she must be 
seen in the moonshine. From her gondolas to 
her coral shops, from her private palaces to her 
doges' palace, all seem toy-like. There is not a 
horse nor wheeled vehicle in the city, and one 
can imagine the lazy-going and quiet nature of 
affairs that are subject to the slow motion of the 
pedestrian and of the singing gondolier. Venice 
has good docks and good anchorage, and I see 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 19I 

some of the largest steam and sailing vessels 
floating here in the canal Guidecca ; she has a 
good railroad across her swampy lagunes into the 
rest of the world ; but what can be said as to the 
thrift of a place steadily decreasing in population ? 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 30. 

Gondola and guide, . . ... . $1 20 

Board, 2 20 

$3 40 
Twelve hundred years ago, here was a cluster 
of mud islands in the sea. We know not what im- 
mediate necessities first impelled man to build 
upon them, but they found a firm hard-pan, and 
ever since have, by sufficient necessity and in- 
ducement, continued to drive spiles and erect 
upon them stone houses, marble palaces, and 
towers. These islands, now compactly built upon, 
have narrow streets, about the width of a common 
hallway, through which throng the people in 
leisure, business, and fashion ; between and around 
these islands are canals of swift-running tide — 
pure, clear sea-water. These are the thorough- 
fares. As a consequence, Venice is pure, cool, 
fresh, and healthy. This kind of pavement (canals) 
is of course noiseless and free from dust. It costs 
nothing to sewer here. 

Fresh water is brought down from the rivers of 
the country in flatboats, filling the boat as a tub, 



192 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

and dipped by ragged, dirty fellows, immersed 
barefooted into it, into the private cisterns. Ven- 
ice is the place to rest and play. I have heard 
rtiore pianos here than in all Italy. St. Mark's 
Piazza is a square, surrounded by ancient public 
buildings, the doge's palace, St. Mark's Church, 
the senators' houses, etc., and shops of surprising 
brilliancy, but small. On this square, ten thousand 
people gather in evenings to quaff wine or coffee, 
smoke tobacco, and listen to some military band. 
The doge's palace and the Church of St. Mark, 
once wonderfully brilliant, are now corroded and 
blackened by time, so that their rich carving and 
outside fresco can hardly be defined. We wan- 
dered through the cells and torture-rooms of the 
palace, and over the bridge of sighs,, and looked 
through the grated iron of the window where the 
prisoners were permitted to take their last view 
at out-door nature. 

One interesting spectacle all strangers go to 
visit at eleven o'clock each day at the great 
piazza (square or place) of St. Mark. Here at 
that hour, the air is almost darkened with pigeons 
who come to be fed, and they will familiarize 
themselves with any body who will permit. I 
saw them alight upon the outstretched hands of 
ladies to eat therefrom. This custom arises from 
a legend of the Avars in connection with carrier- 
pigeons. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 93 

The private palaces are all that can be ex- 
pected of domiciles arising from canals. Some 
of them were pretty in interior arrangement and 
garniture, but not large nor stately. All of them 
are settled unevenly. All I can say for Venice 
at this writing in August is, I would like to 
plunge out of my window into the canal and 
swim, ride a month in her gondolas, and then 
hurry to the country where I could see a tree and 
a horse, and stretch my legsi Leaving Italy, a 
final word should be said about 

THE WEATHER. 

The sun's rays during mid-day have been in- 
tensely hot, but, walking on the shady side of the 
streets, and always keeping a sun-umbrella over 
our heads when subjected to the sun, Ave have 
kept busy throughout the day. Every night, in 
all Italy, through this month of August, has been 
cool. It is said to have been a cool summer in 
England and America. 

RECAPITULATION. 

Italy has occupied thirteen days, and cost ninety 
dollars currency, embracing all her principal cities 
from Turin to Naples, and back to Venice, omit- 
ting the trip from Venice across to Genoa, which 
was paid for in the ninety dollars. 



194 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

EXPENSES, AUGUST 3 1. 

Board, $2 20 

Gondola 20 

Fare to Austrian frontier, second-class, . 4 40 



$6 80 



AUSTRIA. 



From the instant of striking the boundary of Aus- 
tria, en route from Italy, it has seemed as though 
we were re-entering our native land, America. 
The country and the farm cultivation seem Ame- 
rican. Here, for the first time in Europe, have I 
seen cars like ours ; and the railroad manage- 
ment is less pompous and excitable than elsewhere. 
Let me say now that I have been through most 
of Austria, and two days in her capital, and 
every thing is more American, in general scene, 
and in detail of social habits and manners, than 
any other European country. Americans should 
make more of the Austrians. All my companions 
of the voyage concur in these sentiments. 

Austria seems to be a thrifty and contented coun- 
try. Here are not such monuments of art and ar- 
chitecture as elsewhere, but, like our own beloved 
land, she makes up for that in her generah beauty 
and disseminated wealth. Here is a singular 
proof of her good spirit — I have bought over 
one hundred and fifty views, in other countries, 
of remarkable scenes of art, but not one view of 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. I95 

Austria, and yet I admire Austria most for her 
natural simplicity and happiness. Her railroads 
are magnificent. I rode over twenty-five miles 
that cost seven millions of dollars — $280,000 per 
mile ! 

EXPENSES, SEPTEMBER I. 

Barber, $0 30 

Adelsburg grotto, . . . . . i 40 
Dinner, ........ 60 

Porter, 20 

Fare to Vienna, second-class, . . . 9 20 

$11 70 
ADELSBURG GROTTO. 

En route from Venice, we had the lucky thought 
to visit this cave. One of the princes with his 
suite happened there that day, for whom the 
caverns were lighted up with two thousand 
lights ; and, as we wandered through its halls, 
galleries, and tunnels, over its bridges, up its 
hills, and down into its dark valleys — all an under- 
ground world — and into its immense stalactite 
chambers, the height or circumference of which 
the eye could not see, the rich, powerful 
melody of a magnificent military band sounded 
the Austrian hymn as the prince approached. 
We wandered two miles in this cavern, where, in 
the dim light, seemed to be displayed the natural 
antitypes of ail the architecture, sculpture, and 



196 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

ornament that we had just left in the temples, 
the palaces, and ruins of Rome and other cities. 
The illumination of the cave usually costs twenty 
dollars, but we saw it on the visit of the prince 
for a dollar each. 

EXPENSES, SEPTEMBER 2. 

En roiite^ lunch, . . . . . . $0 20 

VIENNxV 

is brilliant, and growing with amazing rapidity. 
Whole streets of magnificent stone or brick edi- 
fices are now in process of erection. At the 
Volks Garten, near the palace, last evening, the 
scene was quite Parisian, and infinitely more 
decent ; in fact, it would do Austrian society an 
injustice to make a comparison of morals with 
the French, so far as public appearances go. 

The place of the Exposition is now for public 
resort, its fountains and trees being delightful. 
It is a broad place, a mile square, called '' The 
Prater." The rotunda of the Exposition build- 
ing is as far across as one of our long blocks — 
400 feet. We saw a signboard there, a relic of 
the Exposition — '' American coak-t2ii\s.** 

The palace of the Kaiser we visited to-day. 
The grounds are majestic and extensive, and the 
people are admitted freely to them. The palace, 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. I97 

however — exterior and interior — has not the rich 
gaudiness of other European palaces, but is 
more chaste and economical, quite in keeping 
with the ideas I have formed of Austrian good 
sense. 

The people here |^are' easy-going and enjoy life. 
While in every other Continental city the public 
urinals have a barbarously free exposure, in 
Vienna they are concealed. In other Continental 
cities, art runs to nude forms ; here there is no 
more of it than in an American city. 

EXPENSES, SEPTEMBER 3. 

Lunch (Vienna), $0 40 

Cab, 40 

Omnibuses, ....... 30 

$1 10 



CHAPTER XVII. 

TEUTONIC FEATURES. 

In Austria and Germany, as in all European 
countries, well-uniformed soldiers swarm every- 
where, in the cities, in every little village, at 
every station. The writer observed one day, 
from the car-windows commanding" a view over 
the country for man}^ miles, bodies of troops, 
infantry, artillery, and cavalry, moving as though 
to repel an invasion on the frontier, while inter- 
spersed through the fields were women farm- 
hands. All the railroads are of great magnifi- 
cence and costliness ; their management is syste- 
matic and with military rigor; their fares are 
high, and traveling for the passenger exacting and 
uncomfortable. The absurdity of an absence of 
maps is general, as in Great Britain. No depot 
has a map. Vienna was the first place Avhere 
I found a hotel with one. I took a ticket from 
Vienna for Berlin, and there was nothing on it to 
indicate a change of cars. Soon after, I found 
myself seventy miles out of my route. One, 
locked in a compartment with two or three 
(other) blockheads, is not likely to see or learn 
much about where he is passing, although visited 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 1 99 

every hour by a chatterbox of a conductor, clam- 
bering along outside of the train. The railroads 
are owned by the princes and the aristocracy 
generally, and their rules, as well as the laws of 
the state, are not favorable to the people. If 
they would have aisle cars, make their depots 
more free, and a ticket " good until used," as in 
America, and have a more enlightened system of 
maps everywhere, with less importance on the 
part of railway officials, travel and intercourse 
among the people would be promoted, and their 
intelligence quickened out of its present stupi- 
dity, which can not now originate an idea, or 
perceive or suggest a traveler's meaning, even in 
their own language, unless words as definite as 
brickbats are thrown at their heads. In Ame- 
rica, if a traveler on a train should point to a sta- 
tion and sa}^ with interrogative _accent, "New- 
York ?" he would be answered Yes or No, as the 
fact might be ; but one can get every thing in 
the world out of the average Continental Euro- 
pean except Yes or No. 

EXPENSES, SEPTEMBER 4. 

Cab (Vienna), . . . . . . $q 60 

Cab, 40 

Board, ....... 2 20 

Lunch, extra, . . . ^ . . . 40 

$3 60 



200 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

Austrian scenery is more diversified than the 
Prussian. Austria has more mountains and hills. 
From Vienna northward, through the centre of 
Prussia, through Berlin to Hamburg, the country 
is level, somewhat sandy, the soil, having the 
appearance of being overwrought, and the forests 
have been swept away. In both countries, the 
females are in the majority in the fields, and 
the males are lounging or strutting in military 
uniforms. Women carry the hod, pump water 
into the street-sprinklers, sweep streets, and saw 
wood as vocations. 



THE RELIGION 

of Austria is Roman Catholic. And yet, meet- 
ing the assertion, often too dogmatically and un- 
charitably made by Protestants, that " all Catho- 
lic countries are; degraded," I say, as a matter of 
superficial observation, that I see nothing but 
thrift, neatness, comfort, and internal peace in 
Austria. Our republican simplicity was much 
pleased with the comparative economy and plain- 
ness of Francis Joseph's palace. 

Immediately on crossing the border from Aus- 
tria to Germany, the crucifixes and Virgin Marys 
disappear entirely ; and yet I can not note any 
particular difference in the material and social 



ECONOMICAL' EUROPEAN TOURIST. 201 

aspect of the two peoples. The customs and 
language, country for country and city for city, 
are similar. 

Government is majestic ; all authority, military 
and civil, is vigorous, dignified, and som.ewhat 
overbearing. Victory has almost turned every 
German's head. In every tov/n there is a great 
deal of military strut. It has been the making 
of the people. Politeness is very superficial. 
Men are regarded as superior to. women. Men 
do all the kissing of each other on the streets 
and at leave-takings. Women do not. Men are 
cringingly polite to each other ; frigidly so to 
wom'en. The women are good creatures here. 
They meet gentlemen half-way, and are grateful 
for attentions to them. In Germany and Austria, 
there is more decency and modesty of men on 
the streets than iii France and Italy, where, in 
some functions, they are semi-barbarians. Here, 
the people are social out of doors ; in American 
cities, the social life is within doors and exclu- 
sive. In every village and city, over half of the 
population are every summer's evening at the 
cafi tables, in the gardens, and along the quays 
and all cool places, enjoying convivial refresh- 
ment and conversation. In short, the ways of 
social enjoyment in Europe are so developed 
that I don't see how a European can content 
himself in America. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



BEER. 

The water all over Europe is execrable — limy 
and brackish, from the absence of forests. All 
drink beer there, even young ladies and children. 
The men drink from mugs as big as the half sec- 
tion of a stove-pipe. It is refreshing and harm- 
less. In America, one glass makes my head ache ; 
here my head is as sound as a nut from it. " Scoot- 
ing" all over the Continent, with my eyes always 
on the alert, I have not seen one case of intoxi- 
cation. Our laws ought to cudgel out the rum- 
traffic, and establish and protect honest beer. 

The Prussian people do not deserve to main- 
tain their liberties unless they can establish a 
better 

■ MONEY CURRENCY. 

Of all the confused and complicated subjects, 
this beats all. Their divisions of coin are infinite 
in denomination and in composition of metal. 
Half of it has nothing on it to indicate its value, 
and the people know it only as one knows the 
faces of his acquaintances. Strangers don't pre- 
tend to know it, and in paying bills, pass it out 
by the handful, like dirt, telling the claimant to 
help himself. The people know this perplexity 
of foreigners, and sometimes " help themselves" 
too liberally. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST 


■ 


EXPENSES, SEPTEMBER 5. 




Board, part of day (Vienna), . 


$1 CD 


Cab, 


20 


Fare to Prussian line, .... 


4 20 


• 


^5 40 


BERLIN 





203 



is an imperial city. The monument of Victory is 
the costHest monument in the world. The busts 
of Wilhelm, Bismarck, and Moltke are crowned 
with wreaths everywhere. This city, like all other 
European cities, is growing. A modern spirit 
seems to have suddenly and simultaneously taken 
hold of all of them. Potsdam, the country resi- 
dence of the Prussian kings, has an old-fashioned 
grandeur. There the natural forests are left as 
gardens, and costly graveled walks, bordered 
with statuary, are run through them. Every 
turn reveals] additional wonders of secluded art 
in statues, fountains, basins, causeways, bridges, 
lodges, etc. It is easy to mark princely grounds 
and palaces. They are scopy, grand, extensive. 
All private palaces, however rich, are small in 
comparison. From Berlin north to the German 
Ocean, the country is flat. 

HAMBURG 

is a busy city. The old part is cramped and 
quaint, but the new part is open, free, and stately. 



204 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

She has 300,000 population. Her bourse, or ex- 
change, was as enterprising a scene, with its one 
thousand merchants, as the Stock Exchange or 
Gold Board of New- York. 

EXPENSES, SEPTEMBER 6. 

(At Prague) meals and lodging, . . $i 50 

Postage, . . . . . . . . 20 

Fare to Berlin, 4 00 

Lodgings at Berlin, . . . . . 80 

Breakfast, ^ . 20 

%6 70 

One afternoon, I heard a tremendous chatter of 
tongues and jaws, s^w a street jammed full of 
people, and safe spectators filling the windows. 
I anticipated a riot, or, perhaps, a revolution. 
From a door-step, I could see the dispute was 
between two passing truckmen. Not a blow was 
struck ; the angry storm spent itself in thunders 
and wind, and the crowd melted awa}^ Not a 
policeman was in sight. For obvious reasons, 
police there are not needed. These scolders were 
the swarms who, with needle-guns and princes 
and aristocrac}^ to drive them, overwhelmed the 
French. 

RECAPITULATION. 

A general run through Austria and Germany, 
spending two or three days at each capital, and 
embracing nine days in all, has cost only $61. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST, 205 

FROM LONDON TO LIVERPOOL, 

the country will almost do for a park. At Liver- 
pool, the tide ebbing and flowing twenty-one feet, 
keeping the Mersey mostly shooting, one way 
or the other, as swift as an arrow, are necessi- 
tated great granite locks or basins on both sides 
of the river to keep the water in and the vessels 
afloat. All the shipping of the world can float 
in them twenty-one feet above the sea at low 
tide. Here is the gate whence England sends out 
to the world the results of her humming indus- 
try, and here is the gate where she receives back 
the world's food and gold. 

EXPENSES, SEPTEMBER 7. 

(Bsriin) Fare to Potsdam, Kaiser's palace, 

and return, $0 40 

Cab and guide, i 00 

Two days' board, '4 00 

$5 40 
From Liverpool to Manchester, forty miles, 
one can not get out of the view of manufactories. 
England is covered with factory-smoke. Liver- 
pool is a rousing place — plain, unpretentious, 
sociable, joyous. Rural Manchester is a vast 
city, looking much as if built to resist earth- 
quakes. Although the factories are many, yet 
they are so scatteredthat they are hard to find, 



206 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

and when found, are harder to obtain admission 
into. In England, as in all'Europe, the intent is 
that people shall know nothing but their own 
business, and the intent has ^obtained a marked 
success. In Manchester, the people have a local 
habit, when answering a stranger's inquiries, of 
pointing one direction and describing by words 
an opposite direction. To keep a clean collar, 
one must change three times a day. The people 
have some local freaks and vagaries, as most 
people have, not based upon reason. Their omni- 
buses are driven at a walk until a load is picked 
up, and then at a trot. The Corporation spends 
much money sprinkling grit upon level streets. 
Almost all the population wear clogs — shoes with 
thick wooden soles — although the pavement is 
smooth and dry. Childhood is cramped and kept 
from active play by them, and they totter along 
like weak-backed monkeys ; the graceful form of 
woman is hideously tortured by them, and men are 
made prematurely old by them. No parliament 
is fit to govern which permits the people to wear 

EXPENSES, SEPTEMBER 8, 9, AND lO. 

Fare to Hamburg, third-class, . . $3 80 
Board at Hamburg, one day, . . . 2 00 
Fare to London (second-class, by steamer), 

occupying September 8, 9, and 10, . .6 00 

$11 80 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 20/ 

clog's. If the people claim for them economy, it 
may be answered that they waste time by retard- 
ing- locomotion. Some say they are not cheaper 
than leather, but they keep the feet from damp. 
To that may be replied, the refined people never 
wear them, while machinists and mechanics, who 
are confined, wear them home beside the little 
barefoot girl who carries the dinner-pail. No 
people can maintain their liberties who wear 
clogs. 

Liverpool is a very cheap place for purchases. 
All returning tourists should reserve a fund for a 
private stock to smuggle home. 

LAST EXPENSES. 

September lo — London horse-cars, . $d 14 

Board and lodging, i day, $2 ; laundry, 

$1.28, 3 28 

September 11 — Fare to Liverpool, Hbird- 

class, 4 76 

Cab, 56 c, ; lunch, 28 c, ... 84 
September 12 and 13 — With a friend. 
Septe?7tber 14 — Return ticket for Manches- 
ter, I 50 

Lodging and breakfast, . . . i 00 

September 15 — Gifts, . . . . . 3 00 

Septe7)iber 16 — Passage to America, . 88 00 

Stewards on ship, . . . . . 2 00 

$104 52 



208 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

RECAPITULATION. 

From Hamburg back through England, Lon- 
don, Liverpool, Manchester, and first class for 
home, embracing twenty days, was $i lo currency. 

DOMICILES. 

If the compartment cars of Europe are an 
index of the undemocratic condition of society, 
with much more clearness does the arrangement, 
location, and style of domiciles in America indi- 
cate the personal independence, ambition, and 
thrift of our people. The different compartments 
in all public vehicles for different classes — which, 
however, are free to all for choice, if paid for — 
are a constant reminder to the people of Europe 
that there are grades to which they must not 
aspire, and that class-lines must be revered. A 
prominent aspect of difference between America 
and Europe is in the location of dwellings. In 
America, the disposition of the people is to segre- 
gate and separate ; in Europe, the disposition is 
to congregate — to huddle together. In America, 
there are more villages and small cities than in 
Europe ; and here, dotting the land everywhere, 
never anywhere out of sight, are elegant and 
well-garnished homesteads. In Europe, the tra- 
veler is surprised at not observing these iso- 
lated homesteads as he rides across the long 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 209 

Spaces from city to cit}'. The domiciles of 
the farmers are generally characteristic of those 
of the inferior peasantry ; in America, they are 
comparatively manorial and stylish. In the vil- 
lages of America, the houses are separated and 
surrounded with grounds, every family seeming 
to desire plenty of room and out-of-door seclu- 
sion on their own domain. In Continental 
Europe, particularly, the houses in the small vil- 
lages are compacted as though the people possess 
no land to spare, or are afraid of it. Of course, 
this is not absolutely true in every place, but 
such are the differences in a general way. In 
Europe, the cities are more the centres of every 
thing than they are in America. While for 
Americans at large, the cities have almost no 
attraction as a place of residence, in Europe all 
life gravitates toward the cities as moths do 
toward a light. In America, the brisk, proud., 
fashionable villages, with their public libraries, 
free schools, lyceums, telegraphic and railroad 
connections, that are each of them the centre of 
an independent, thrifty, farming population, that 
are the homes of representatives, judges, gover- 
nors, senators, and presidents, and that consti- 
tute the real political power and social worth of 
the country, are characteristics not applicable to 
Europe. That peculiarly robust, active, and 
enterprising character of the millions of Ameri- 



210 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. - 

can farmers who have their horses and carriages, 
and indulge in their use daily, who count as no 
trouble a twelve-mile journey to a wedding, a 
church, a paring-bee, a husking or raising, a party 
or a dance, and which migratory character is a 
great feature of American strength and material 
resources, is utterly strange to Continental Europe, 
where the common people have not so much the 
use of horses, and where social circles have nar- 
rower territorial limits. 

The 'American abroad can see that the great 
domain of his own country will alwaj^s be filled 
with a free, happy, and' strong people, owing to 
the distribution of acres^among them wherefrom 
nature stretches out her own lavish hands, full of 
bounties, to be merely received without effort. 
The pride and dignity of our population away 
from the cities is our American characteristic. 
The increase and dignifying of our cities will be 
our weakness. In the old world, all eyes are 
turned to the metropolises. France lavished mil- 
lions upon the new opera-house in Paris. Our 
rural population would not be likely to build an 
opera-house in a city. The American abroad 
can see that there can be no real happiness in 
Europe until the whole system of land-tenure is 
changed, which, however, is not likely to be done 
but by an agrarian revolution, an event that will 
as certainly occur as the world rolls on ; and ' 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 211 

when, through the education of the lower orders, 
the spark shall be struck in any state, it will leap 
to other states like electric flame. 



CHAPTER XVIl. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

It is common for Americans returning from 
Europe to express themselves as more than ever 
gratified with their own country, countrymen, and 
institutions ; but with this general expression, they 
seldom detail their reasons why. 

In Europe generally, the average sentiment re- 
garding America is disrespect, or, at least, indif- 
ference. In England, every thing concerning us 
t) is regarded with almost contempt ; but as to all 
American sojourners in England, that sentiment is 
promptly and fully reciprocated. Individually, our 
•people are respected abroad for their personal 
bearing and their lavish outlay of money, the 
avidious acceptance of which is general with the 
entire Eastern^Hemisphere. Our prodigality is the 
only element that redeems us, in their ridiculous 
ignorance and prejudice. From the hour of leav- 
ing our shores, the ears of Americans in England 
are continually scorched with the misrepresenta- 
tions of their countrv, and these remarks here 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 213 

will be indulged in with a view of gratifying a 
wholesome resentment, and of correcting some of 
the English criticisms. • Ship-captains, whose liv- 
ing is in our trade, join in this abuse ; the foreign- 
ers who have gained affluence ^here, and are re- 
turning " home" to display it, join in it ; copper- 
head Americans join in it, and, arriving in Eu- 
rope, we find but little interest taken in our coun- 
try but to criticise and censure. There is much 
more 

PREJUDICE IN ENGLAND 

regarding America than there is in America re- 
garding England. Americans who have had the 
good fortune to meet only the more educated and 
liberal English are deceived in this respect. The 
average Englishman is a companionable fellow 
everywhere and on every subject except the rela- 
tive merits of the two countries, and in that he is 
a clear-cut and well-defined ass. This anti-Ameri- 
can feeling is coextensive with the middle class 
of English, and to a higher degree ; and more par- 
ticularly are they intolerant, absurd, and bigoted 
who have raised themselves just above want. It 
is the middle class of England Avho are conserva- 
tive, who throw up their hats in favor of an annu- 
ity to the latest prince, and who unfeelingly cry 
down the strikes and unions whereby their less 
fortunate countrymen are struggling to ameliorate 
their condition. The small merchants, the well- 



214 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

to-do mechanics, the obscure professional men, 
and the clerks are the most Englishy. They think 
the earth rolls over only for England. They read 
to a very limited degree, and reason less. Debar- 
red by law and custom from high social position, 
they devote their surplus energy and leisure to 
the pleasures rather of sense and of the time-be- 
ing than to high-toned aspiration. They assume 
to judge of America by the sporadic spleen of 
transient writers ; every American political "sore- 
head," and every rebel or '^copperhead" who tra- 
duces the institutions or people of his country, is 
gluttonously imbibed by them. Mark Twain's 
play, '' The Gilded Age," an idle amusement for 
Americans as an hyperbole of our exceptional ec- 
centricities, would be accepted throughout Eng- 
land as a fair illustration of our average life. He 
should take it thither : " There's millions in it." 

The incautious grumblings of Americans abroad, 
the " Yankee" lampoonings, and the exaggera- 
tions indulged in by the European press of our 
exceptional incidents of civil maladministration 
and our social unfinish, have set republicanism 
back in Europe fifty years. 

THE BRITISH PRESS 

in these matters is noticeably jealous and menda- 
cious. It systematically publishes of us only our 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 2X5 

foibles. If the press know America, they have not 
succeeded in instructing their people of her. The 
people have heard of H. W. Beecher and the 
Danbury News man, and suppose those worthies 
'' reside in the York district." No one has any 
conception of our confederated character as a 
nation, and they do not understand American 
empire. They say our '' war was unholy, and 
every secessionist j killed was a murder." The 
British press is to-day lying to restrain the un- 
due emigration of labor, and to keep down its 
price ; and, to this end, they are now publishing 
letters purporting to come from disappointed emi- 
grants to America, made up of absurd stories, and 
savoring strongly of sancUivt invention ; and yet 
they say nothing about the millions of money sent 
by emigrants back from America to Europe to 
help over their friends who, by their own exer- 
tions, could never pay their steerage passage. 

The writer was present in the House of Com- 
mons when Mr. Butt objected to the annuity asked 
in behalf of Prince Leopold, and saw, when a 
member read from the Richmond Whig an opinion 
that '' Queen Victoria's government was ten times 
cheaper than Grant's, with its peculations," the 
foolish libel received by members and spectators 
with evident glee, and it was made the most of by 
the Times. The 



2l6 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

COMMON ENGLISH IDEA 

of American society is, that it is a sort of reckless, 
unconscionable, English-speaking people, not in a 
high state of civilization, where the law is a dead 
letter, where public vice is rife, and where gov- 
ernment is a farce. They regard our few clerical 
scandals as an evidence of the general character 
of our clergy. They have heard about Jim Fisk 
and the Erie Railroad. They think the road is 
the spine of the country, and that, it being rotten, 
all the railroad system of the country, and the 
people too, have the meningitis. 

The captain of a coal-mine called our Northern 
and Southern armies mobs. He said he had his 
own brother for authority, who was in our war, 
for the statement that the two armies at first fought 
with pitchforks, axes, shovels, and brickbats. 

To say that the 

AVERAGE MANHOOD 

of the United States is above that of Europe, and 
that man and woman here enjoy comparative 
emancipation alone in the world, will suffice for 
this part of the subject. But English unsympathy, 
ignorance, prejudice, and misrepresentation re- 
garding us and our institutions, which all our tra- 
velers notice, merit more especial attention. 
• While Americans see much to admire and re- 



ECONOMICxVL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 217 

vere in England, while they are amazed at Euro- 
pean art, the completeness and power of European 
governments, state and municipal, over their 
subjects, the resources of taxation, the perfection 
of public works, the material displays of power, 
and the national patriotism of the peoples, yet 
they see clearly through it all why Jefferson said 
the Avorld was governed too much, and that what 
Europeans term our " weak government " is but 
the 

STRENGTH OF OUR PEOPLE. 

The American government is unobtrusive and 
unimposing, but, under the intelligence and patri- 
otism of the people, is as powerful within itself as 
heaven. In Europe, the government is impres- 
sive everywhere, and monopolizes respectability. 
In America, government is unseen and unfelt, 
and its glory is disseminated, as its wealth and 
power are, to the people individually. Our gov- 
ernment officials — state and municipal — may be 
lax, and our corporations " soulless," v/hich give us 
a bad name as a people ; but comparison has shown 
me that here the average dignity, tone, and hon- 
esty of private character is above other peoples'. 
Private suspicion and distrust is nowhere ranker 
than in England. Bolts and bars belong to every do- 
micile, even in country shanties, which are through- 
out the warm summer nights tight as a jail, while 



2l8 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

here they are open as an Arab's tent. Said a 
restaurant-keeper in Manchester to me : '' The al- 
mighty dollar is here as powerful as in America 
— it's every man for himself." Said my landlady 
— a widow — in London : " Keeping lodgings is 
bad business ; we lose a good deal by cheats. An 
English officer on half pay has just cheated me 
out of four months. ^ We landladies consider we 
are all right if we get hold of an American." 

England spends untold moneys and labor to 
transport huge captured cannon thousands of 
miles to the public squares of interior towns in 
order to impress the people with their prowess, 
while their starving laborers demonstrate their 

RESTLESSNESS AND DESPAIR 

in that species of malicious mischief known in 
Great Britain only ; and while their poor-laws 
and paupers are becoming a ''dismal problem," 
the people are still hero-worshipful — an element 
peculiar to barbarism ; they have monuments 
enough erected to great men to buy every pau- 
per Englishman a homestead, while the principal 
cause of lunacy in their asylums is poverty. All 
this wasted money and labor would be dissemi- 
nated in America, in substantial benefits to the 
people. But the idolatry of the English for 
their monarchy makes their burdens acceptable. 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 219 

An American there, fresh in the field of compari- 
son, sees the direct connection between caste and 
the incumbrances it weaves about the people. 

All of our self-made presidents have been lam- 
pooned by English sentiment. But the 

QUEEN AND HER FAMILY, 

petted above all domain of human utilities, 
are not beyond criticism. In practical philan- 
thropy and social utility, the Queen has done 
less, in proportion to her opportunities, than 
any other woman in ten thousand ; and prac- 
tical sympathy with her own people has never 
reached the name of gratitude. This belief is 
crystallizing rapidly with the English people. 
The personal expenses of herself and progeny are 
accepted by her as a matter of course. Her main 
quality of mind is a natural relish for that govern- 
mental fiction — her sovereignty — v/hich her house 
has enjoyed at the expense of a people who, not- 
withstanding their varied claims to good sense, 
are subject to the ridicule of all the world, for 
their worship of a princehood that for a century 
has been far inferior to the average of its subjects 
in morality and intellect. Fifty thousand of the 
Queen's sisters, lost to shame, are within a walk 
of her palace, but she has never gone down among 
them with her sceptre to counsel or command, nor 
even blessed them wdth her scorn. The expenses of 



220 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

her coronation, her mcome and the mcomes of her 
children, the costly trappings of court paid for out 
of the national exchequer, royal presents, the public 
conveyance of distinguished personages, princely 
baptisms, royal funerals, the fidgety constant 
journeyings of the Queen and family, the main- 
tenance of five royal palaces and four royal yachts, 
court ceremonies, allowances to trumpeters, wa- 
termen, marshals, and chamberlains — all tell di- 
rectly upon the suffering lower class, who have 
to pay as much for a pound of meat or a potato 
as the nobility do. But this burden, extra to that 
of a republic, bears little proportion to the in- 
fluence of the public debt, which removes its 
owners from the spheres of productive industry, 
and bears little proportion to the monopoly and 
idleness of the soil, or to the^immense army (besides 
the national police), the half-pay and pension list, 
the frequent demand for monuments, public cele- 
brations and receptions, household troops, sham 
fights, and foreign wars of conquest, or of redress 
of the questionable grievances of private in- 
dividuals who, unlike Yankees, have not the 
shrewdness to keep themselves out of mischief 
while sojourning in a foreign country. England 
maintains one soldier to every one hundred and 
fifty-eight of her inhabitants, besides maintaining 
the navy ; the United States have only one soldier 
for ever}^ fourteen hundred inhabitants. 



EC6N0MICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 221 

All these expenses are uncommon to America, 
and in England the}^ 

ROB THE HOUSEHOLDS 

of their security, ease, and garnishment. There 
are a dozen monuments to individuals in Great 
Britain, each of which would buy all the public 
monuments in the United States. Nelson has 
three and Wellington two, each costing as much 
as Bunker Hill. It is one of the glories of America 
that the Washington national monument has not 
been completed. Washington's monument is in 
the hearts of his countrymen, and his history in 
the books of the free schools. 

AN ENGLISHMAN 

can not see an idea unless it is allegorized in gran- 
ite, nor recognize ability or authority unless it is 
behind a star or scarf. A client can not believe 
in his young lawyer's ability unless there be over 
his waxed mustache a grizzly wig, while in court ; 
nor can learning or dignity be seen in a judge 
unless he is bewigged and begowned. One 
flunky correspondent likened General McClellan 
in ability to an English head-quarters' orderly, 
because McClellan wore a slouched hat and citi- 
zen's dress. For us to claim generalship for 
Grant or Sherman meets with only their mute 



222 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

contempt ; but they accord genius to Lee. They 
know all about Stonewall Jackson, but don't know 
Howard nor Thomas. Their sympathies were, 
and still are, with our secessionists ; they can not 
recognize any body's right to empire but that of 
the English. 

It is said there is more liberty in England than 
in America. A Brooklyn clergyman, recently, 
has said he failed to see where there was less 
freedom in England than in America. Had he 
attempted to walk erect, like a man, into grades 
there corresponding to those here, into which 
he freely enters, he would have learned through 
his dullest senses what his perceptions could not 
discover. Dickens could " not go as a man 
whither he Avas invited as an actor." The peo- 
ple have the " liberty'' of knowing there are 
offices and social positions to which they can 
never aspire ; they have the " liberty" to pay their 
taxes and be led by their aristocracy without 
question ; they have the " liberty" of prisoners in 
jail, the " liberty" of a car on its track, the " liber- 
ty" of tadpoles in a mud-puddle ; but they have 
not the high sense of liberty in full, free, dignified, 
emancipated, equal manhood. The American sti- 
mulus to young men's good behavior afforded 
in political preferment is wanting in England. 
An Englishman's house is called his castle, where 
he may terrorize over his children, and kick his 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 223 

wife to death with his clogs. They have " liber- 
ty" to support the established church, and to 
pay the expenses of government without ques- 
tioning. They have *' liberty" to vote for mem- 
bers of the House of Commons only, who are 
and must be conservative, essentially, and who 
can not criticise the expenses of the sovereign 
without being charged with treason. The country 
is weighted down with conservatism ; it is thick as 
the London fog, and is a pack upon every poor 
Englishman's back. Liberty ! the compartment 
cars are a symbol of their political and social 
liberty, and of the cribbed and confined move- 
ments of men. All the laws of the state, the 
rules of society, the practices of corporations and 
business establishments, proclaim, " Confine your- 
self to your own sphere;" '' Mind your own busi- 
ness;" "Beware of the dog;" " No admittance ;" 
*' Trespassers punished." The people know noth- 
ing except in their own business and their own 
sphere, and, accident throwing them out of their 
single vocation, they are helpless; suspicion and 
uncharity brood everywhere. In America, inter- 
course between man and man is open, welcoming^ 
unsuspecting ; in all Europe, it is distrustful. Here 
hospitality is easy, and the house-door is open ; 
there, if the door of the private house be not shut 
tight as a clam, such hospitality as you find is over- 
strained and affected with dignity. English domi- 



224 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

ciliary exclusiveness even reaches so far as to ex- 
clude sunlight and fresh air. There are few uni- 
versal ideas; there is but little intercommunica- 
tion, and public opinion is not as developed as in 
America. 

An indication of the^difference in the degrees of 
self-government between Americans and other 
peoples will be seen in the difference of know- 
ledge of civil government. It is only with the 
utmost difficulty that an American traveler can, 
upon inquiry of an English subject, Frenchman, 
Italian, Austrian, or German, obtain any informa- 
tion a-bout the workings of their governments, 
either state or municipal. The merchant, the 
school-teacher, the farmer, the mechanic, and also 
the lawyer, are ignorant of the duties of civil 
administration. The method of taxation, direct and 
indirect, the maintenance of public improvements, 
and the red tape of office are left by the people 
to a class, while any average American can fill any 
office. The English speak of our 

LAXITY OF PUBLIC MORALS. 

Their laxity oi private morals furnishes examples 
of nameless crimes and obscene literature and 
traditions for all the world. Their inferior courts 
are charnel-houses of beastliness, as ours are when 
the foreign element among us predominates. Real 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 225 

Americanism in America, though born in the slums 
by accident, will aspire with a bound into decency 
and refinement. It does not beat women, invent 
malicious and dirty mischief, nor murder non- 
union men. We have been charged with 



YANKEE TRICKS, 

but adulteration of food has become so frightful in 
England as to require the interference of Parlia- 
ment ; and Carlyle has recently said, '' All Eng- 
land has decided that the most profitable way is 
to do its work ill, swiftly, slimly, and mendacious- 
ly." They praise the 



STABILITY OF THEIR GOVERNMENT, 

while Trafalgar square often resounds with ora- 
tors predicting a republic, and denouncing princely 
annuities. They boast of official purity while as 
large a percentage of their people are in the peni- 
tentiary as that of any other country. But should 
their civil administrators steal, the people, in 
their ignorance of civil government, could never 
detect it; and if they could detect it, they could 
not remedy it, having no elections for those offices. 
The grand jury they have, but that is not so ser- 
viceable for reforms as public opinion, which in 



226 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

America is more spontaneous and operative than 
anywhere else in the world. 

AGRARIAN IDEAS 

are arising that are only the natural sequence of 
a barbaric policy in land ownerships that could 
not exist in the twentieth century. England is 
not now self-supporting. The London markets 
have grain, fruit, and vegetables from all parts of 
the world. England's land is used for parks and 
as grazing pastures for London's mutton-chops- 
Let America lay an embargo on grain, France on 
vegetables, and Spain on fruit, then all the world 
would pity England. 

An American returns to his native land con- 
tent, with the exception of his impatience to cul- 
tivate in his countrymen more national pride. 
He sees his countrymen proud in an average 
manhood above that of any other in the world. 
Here the lower orders are low only a generation, 
and do not entail their condition upon their 
descendants. He sees his people are less affected 
by baubles, are cool, plain, direct, practical, proud, 
self-sustaining, self-controlling, of more work and 
less talk, men of more fighting and less scolding 
and that they have a private honor, a social faith, 
a democratic respect of each other, and freedom 
of spirit not realized elsewhere. But let not our 



ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 22/ 

metropolis be taken as a criterion, where foreign 
influences have assimilated ; nor our seaports, 
the dumping-grounds of the Old World's social 
slough, and where, widely, American society 
itself is degenerated by the infection of foreign 
fraud, vice, cowardice, disloyalty ; nor the ex- 
ceptional specimens of degenerated Americans 
who only disgust the superior foreigner. The 
writer frequently observes "bands" of exclusive 
Americans, whose shriveled characters, moral and 
physical, provoke only his mortification. For 
twenty years, the writer has been a traveler and 
observer throughout the length and breadth of 
our land, and now speaks in comparison with the 
length and breadth of other lands. 

There is no prejudice in the foregoing compari- 
sons of peoples ; they are the involuntary impres- 
sions received by Americans generally while 
abroad. The upper half of all peoples can, in 
education, refinement, and common decency of 
intercourse, assimilate with each other; but the 
lower half of all foreign peoples will not find in 
America, away from the seaports, their counter- 
part in the elements of stupidity, jealousy, preju- 
dice, bigotry, cowardice, puerility, and whatever 
bemeans humanity. Our millions of rosy, bold 
boys and girls who walk miles over the crusted 
snow to the free schools ; the robust, roaming, 
rural population, trained from childhood with ax 



228 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 

and gun, and rod and saddle, in vast spaces of 
fresh air, with the stimulus of inviting and unfor- 
bidden domains, conscious of free ballot, free press, 
and free religion, who inherit no masters and 
know not vassalage — this character has no coun- 
terpart in Europe. As the government in Europe 
robs the individual of identity, and assumes to it- 
self power, dignity, and majesty, so it goes further 
and monopolizes all the integrity. I will not 
quarrel with any body who says the governments 
of Europe are more respectable than ours ; but 
private honesty and honor in America are, to my 
eyes, above that of all the world. 

From Europe, an American can look to his own 
land, and there see, not monuments nor arts, but 
principles governing society as distinct from those 
of Europe as the mountain-peaks of the Alps, 
such as national temperance, national Sabbath- 
keeping, national honor to women, free education, 
cheap government, strict decency, and mutual 
faith between the classes. 

Hail ! then, American flag ! Hail ! bright, free, 
aspiring, abundant, generous America ! Our com- 
patriots always meet each other in Europe with 
more mutual regard, and a degree of congratula- 
tion upon the institutions of their own country and 
the character of their countrymen. Wherever 
they have moved in strange lands, it has been 
among people who know not the word " equality ;" 



FXONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 229 

they see nobilit}^ on the one hand and degrada- 
tion on the other, the arrogance and contempt of 
the former and servility of the latter, and the two 
classes meeting only in mutual distrust ; and then 
the Americans recur to their own native country 
to exclaim, '' Land of the noble, free!" 

The temples and palaces they meet ma}^ for 
for an hour, bewilder them with their dimensions 
and their art, but to the drones about them, and 
w^ho fill them, they have not seemed to impart 
any extra superiority ; and they look back to 
America, where the free spirits of men have 
strengthened 'mid its " rocks and rills," its '^ woods 
and templed hills." 

They also see everywhere abroad the power and 
conservative imposition of the state -church, and 
yet widespread vice and dishonesty among the 
people ; and then they sigh of the land of the Pil- 
grims, " Our fathers God, to thee. Author of 
liberty." 

They see all peoples on bended knee to their 
monarchs, and they repeat of the land of Washing- 
ton, ''Protect us by thy might, great God, our 
King!" And often in heartfelt emotion iVmeri- 
cans abroad join in Holmes' hymn "America," 
which may here be quoted as a fit 



2^0 ECONOMICAL EUROPEAN TOURIST. 



CONCLUSION. 

' My native country ! thee, 
Land of the ttoble, free, 

Thy name I love. 
I love thy rocks and rills. 
Thy woods" •a.ndi templed hills; 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 



Onr fathers' God, to thee, J 
Author of liberty, 

To thee we sing ! 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light ; 
Protect us by thy might, 

Great God, oi^r King !" 



APPENDIX. 



The following fares are given to show generally 
the expense of European car-fare. Making Lon- 
don the starting-point, and then fixing the fares 
to certain principal points, the reader can approxi- 
mate his fare for any trip he may select, and allow- 
ing about as much for lodging and eating as he 
would in America per diem, can approximate, 
to within a few dollars, his entire expenses : 

; Time. ist Class. 2d Class. 3d Class. 

From Liverpool to London, 6 hours $12 50 $8 00 $5 50 

From London to Berlin, . 

From London to Geneva, 
via Paris, .... 

From London to Naples, 
via Trieste, Venice, Flor- 
ence, Rome, and back to 
Geneva, .... 

From London to Madrid, 
via Paris, 

From London to St. Peters- 
burg, via Berlin, 

From London to Paris, 

Cook & Co. have arranged to furnish return 
or circidar tours, with stop-over permits, at 
much lower figures, and their offices may be 
found in New-York and all the principal cities 
of Europe. 



36 hours 


33 39 


28 00 


22 00 


34 hours 


33 00 


24 38 


19 00 


7 days 


-]-] 00 


64 00 


49 00 


2 days 


61 00 


49 00 


40 00 


4 days 


^72 00 


61 00 


52 00 


10 hours 


16 00 


II 00 


7 00 



